(Community Matters) I’m increasingly anxious for friends, acquaintances and even people I don’t know who are looking for work or who are underemployed. I fear some portion of this recession/depression unemployment is more deeply systemic. Upon recovery, is it reasonable to expect well earning opportunities for everyone who’s lost their jobs? And, how long will the soft market last? As I posted below, soft market is relative to geography and sector.
Interesting article in The Atlantic: Why Unemployment Matters. It doesn’t address the systemic changes in US employment but she does (albeit superficially) discuss psychological implications of long term unemployment.
Our unemployment problem is not, as in previous recessions, that too many people are entering unemployment. Layoffs and discharges are actually lower than they’ve been in a decade. Rather, our problem is that people aren’t exiting unemployment. And that’s a much bigger issue.
Human capital is like almost any other form of capital: it is a depreciating asset. The longer you stay out of the workforce, the less valuable you are to potential employers. You lose market intelligence and industry connections. Your technical knowledge and skills atrophy.
Community Matters 
I dunno. All I know is that for the past 30 years politicians have been preaching education as the panacea, and although it might be helping, it isn’t doing enough.
Gurus I doubt:
Richard Florida and the prescription for design appreciation and elevation of artists
Ayn Rand and the prescription for hero worship of technologists
Joel Osteen and Oprah Winfey and the prescription for positive thinking and blind optimism
Grover Norquist and the prescription for irresponsible tax policy.
We’ll have to muddle through with some sort of pragmatism. Try different things, fail fast, abandon what doesn’t work, move on.