Last December, Michael Goldfarb, author, journalist and broadcaster, wrote 50+ and working, but underemployed, a post for our site.  Yesterday, he sent me an essay History in the Time of Forgetting:  The Death of Solidarity that he has added to his own blog.

In his essay, Michael calls this period in American history “The Downturn.”  He writes that that globalization has united the residents of world financial centers, such as New York, London, Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai,  but distanced them from everyone else.  He  believes that the statistical models and data used by the U.S. government to track economic activity are outdated and no longer reflect the reality of the working world for many people, who are working, but at rates of pay that are less than half of what they had previously earned.  He asks:  Where will new full-time jobs come from for both older and younger workers?

Fundamentally, he is fearful that The Downturn has either created or accelerated a death of human solidarity, which he defines as the willingness of one person to risk his or her personal security to help another.   Workers under 25 and over 50 can’t find employment.  “Yet,”  Michael summed up, “stock markets and bonuses continue to rise.  GDP is expanding.  The Recession is over…but The Downturn isn’t.”

Take a look at his essay, and let us know what you think about The Downturn and the death of human solidarity.