The Economic Crunch We're in: Corporations Want Fewer Workers, But They Still Need Everyone to Be Consumers

By Robert Parry, Consortium News
Posted on July 15, 2010, Printed on July 16, 2010
http://www.alternet.org/story/147573/

A hard truth about the U.S. economy is that corporations don’t need as many of us as workers but still need us as consumers. That dilemma helps explain why unemployment is stuck near 10 percent and why the economic recovery is stumbling toward a double dip.

The Washington Post reported Thursday that nonfinancial companies are sitting on $1.8 trillion - about one-fourth more than at the start of the recession - but won't add personnel in part because they're waiting for consumer demand to pick up, which isn't happening because many Americans don't have jobs or are afraid of losing theirs.