Unemployment is an issue we keep on the back burner while obsessing about world affairs. Hard core Conservatives frequently characterize the poor and unemployed as welfare addicted. Liberals see them as needing assistance. They, themselves, see themselves as personal failures. I believe that we, the American people, are the failures for allowing their plight to continue.

The following story from today’s BBC News contains a handful of facts that I believe help one gain an understanding of the silent pain these people are experiencing. I’m not going to draw any conclusions here. I think that the facts speak for themselves. A lot of immensely wealthy people looking down on the unemployed from their lofty professional heights exhibit a casual case of unearned righteousness in my opinion. That these “upper class” moguls find a degree of social enlightenment is vital.