Bloomberg, experts warn of riots
[REPRINT]By Brendan Lynch
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg warned yesterday if the national jobs crisis doesn’t end soon, the United States would see riots in the streets.
“We have a lot of kids graduating college, can’t find jobs,” Bloomberg said on his radio show. “That’s what happened in Cairo. That’s what happened in Madrid. You don’t want those kinds of riots here.”
Thomas Kochan, a professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, agreed with Bloomberg’s assessment.
“There’s so much frustration at the lack of jobs,” Kochan said. “I’m surprised there aren’t more visible signs of anger already. The American public is very tolerant and not prone toward civil unrest, but we’re living on borrowed time with this economy.”
And the hits keep coming — yesterday the Federal Reserve released a report saying U.S. household income fell for the first time in a year, dropping .3 percent to $58.5 trillion. Earlier this week, the Census Bureau put the U.S. poverty rate at 15.1 percent, the highest since 1993. And the national unemployment rate held steady at 9.1 percent as the U.S. added zero jobs in August.
But Bay Staters may not be as ready to riot as New Yorkers. Massachusetts’ unemployment rate dropped to 7.4 percent in August and Kochan said the state’s strong, diversified, innovation-based economy creates high-paying jobs.
“That doesn’t absolve us,” he said. “Young people have also been leaving the state because of high costs and because they’re having a hard time starting families here.”
California, Nevada, Florida and parts of the Midwest may not be so lucky, Kochan said.
“Detroit and Milwaukee are almost wastelands compared to what they were 20 years ago,” he said. “There are large numbers of people who are unemployed and who have given up. Somehow they’re getting by, but no one knows how.”
Northeastern University economist Alan Clayton-Matthews said potential triggers would include the government failing to extend unemployment insurance — but said the “very American” tradition of demonstrating — already seen in Wisconsin — seems a more likely outcome.
“I could certainly see a lot of unemployed workers at the end of their ropes expressing anger,” he said. “But would we see riots? I doubt it.”
“We have a lot of kids graduating college, can’t find jobs,” Bloomberg said on his radio show. “That’s what happened in Cairo. That’s what happened in Madrid. You don’t want those kinds of riots here.”
Thomas Kochan, a professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, agreed with Bloomberg’s assessment.
And the hits keep coming — yesterday the Federal Reserve released a report saying U.S. household income fell for the first time in a year, dropping .3 percent to $58.5 trillion. Earlier this week, the Census Bureau put the U.S. poverty rate at 15.1 percent, the highest since 1993. And the national unemployment rate held steady at 9.1 percent as the U.S. added zero jobs in August.
But Bay Staters may not be as ready to riot as New Yorkers. Massachusetts’ unemployment rate dropped to 7.4 percent in August and Kochan said the state’s strong, diversified, innovation-based economy creates high-paying jobs.
“That doesn’t absolve us,” he said. “Young people have also been leaving the state because of high costs and because they’re having a hard time starting families here.”
California, Nevada, Florida and parts of the Midwest may not be so lucky, Kochan said.
“Detroit and Milwaukee are almost wastelands compared to what they were 20 years ago,” he said. “There are large numbers of people who are unemployed and who have given up. Somehow they’re getting by, but no one knows how.”
Northeastern University economist Alan Clayton-Matthews said potential triggers would include the government failing to extend unemployment insurance — but said the “very American” tradition of demonstrating — already seen in Wisconsin — seems a more likely outcome.
“I could certainly see a lot of unemployed workers at the end of their ropes expressing anger,” he said. “But would we see riots? I doubt it.”
-— brendan.lynch@bostonherald.com
