High unemployment means coping, somehow.
U.S. Postal Service workers who handle letters addressed to Santa at the North Pole say more letters ask for basics — coats, socks and shoes — rather than Barbie dolls, video games and computers.
At New York City's main post office, Head Elf Pete Fontana and 22 staff elves will sort 2 million letters in Operation Santa, which connects needy children with "Secret Santas" who answer their wishes.
Fontana, a customer relations coordinator for the Postal Service, has been head elf for 15 years.
"The need is greater this year than I've ever seen it," he says. "One little girl didn't want anything for herself. She wanted a winter coat for her mother."
Christmas of course means different things to different people.
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) called Democrats' push to force through an arms control treaty and an omnibus spending bill right before Christmas "sacrilegious," and warned he'd draw the process out to wage his objections.
“We shouldn’t be jamming a major arms control treaty up against Christmas; it’s sacrilegious and disrespectful," he told POLITICO. "What's going on here is just wrong. This is the most sacred holiday for Christians. They did the same thing last year - they kept everybody here until [Christmas Eve] to force something down everybody's throat. I think Americans are sick of this."
Fancy jewelry and expensive electronics won’t be under Columbia resident Tamika Claybourne’s Christmas tree.
This holiday season she’ll be lucky if she can even fill her children’s stockings with the basics.
“I am worried about the everyday necessities,” the 36-year-old single mother of four said. “I just really want to get stuff that they need — clothes, shoes. I am having a hard time trying to provide for me and the four of them.”
Claybourne hopes the Maury County Community Christmas Card Program will be able to provide some of those necessities, but that will depend on the amount of donations provided by her neighbors. Like Armstrong, many of the people asking for help are hardworking people who are just down on their luck....
Armstrong is raising four children by herself. Her oldest is 19 and is hoping to attend Columbia State Community College or Middle Tennessee State University, while her youngest is 9 years old.
While raising four children, Claybourne obtained a degree from Kaplan Career University in 2007. For the past 15 months, she has worked at a local clinic, drawing blood, giving shots and performing other important tasks.
But in June, the struggling economy resulted in her hours being reduced to only about 30 per week. Since then, she barely has enough money to provide for her children, and she has fallen several months behind on her rent.
Economic statistics show that Claybourne is not alone in feeling economic pain this holiday season. The unemployment rate in Maury County stands at 14 percent, the fifth highest in the state.
Because let us not forget who suffers.
Asked whether he'd support the legislation, and oppose a filibuster to it, DeMint answered, simply, "no" to both questions. "It raises taxes, it raises the death tax. I don't think we needed to negotiate that aspect of this thing away," DeMint said. "I don't think we need to extend unemployment any further without paying for it, and without making some modifications such as turning it into a loan at some point."
Huh? It raises the death tax? DeMint is talking here about the estate tax, which, admittedly, is zero at the moment thanks to bizarre tax law writing from Republicans. But in three weeks it automatically reverts to an exemption of $1 million and a rate of 55% on everything above that level. That's pretty high. Or maybe the proper point of comparison is the 2009 level: a $3.5 million exemption and a 45% rate.
Well, compare away. The Obama deal sets the exemption at $5 million and the rate at 35%. That's lower than the most recent rate and much lower than the rate that will shortly go into effect if there's no tax deal.
Just to shift gears a bit: here.
The United States cannot go on like this indefinitely. The glib acceptance of the wonders of grotesque inequality? The mainstreaming of anti-science nonsense?
We're fucked.