Sadly, that headline isn't satire, but is actually a real quote from Moody's Investment Service that appeared in the
Dallas Morning News in a recent article on spiking energy costs and the effect that they're having on working people.
The quote from the article follows:
Middle- and lower-income families will take the biggest hit [from increased energy costs]. Still, economists as Moody's Investors Service point out that some low-wage workers might be compelled to seek higher-paying jobs.
"Given the underlying vitality of the economy, many might well succeed at securing higher wages," the firm reported in a reserach note Thursday.
Where to begin in responding to this ignorant crap from Moody's?
Maybe with the implication underlying their comments that low-wage workers are in low-wage jobs because they're simply too lazy to go out and find better jobs? At best, this is condescending as hell. But really, in my mind it just reflects the stereotype that so many upper class individuals want to hold on to that poor people are poor because they are lazy and unmotivated. After all, we can't all be hard working "go-getters" like their hero, George W. Bush.
Another observation that comes to mind is that the only folks who are talking about the "vitality" of this economy are those who haven't been forced to look for a new job. One could wish that whoever wrote that drivel for Moody's get laid off from his job so that he can experience for himself the "underlying vitality" of this economy.
Finally, this sort of drivel seems to be painfully typical of what passes for economic analysis today. Since the decision makers do tend to be rather disassociated from the day to day realities that most of us face, they are dependent on the input that they receive from these analysts to a painful degree. No wonder most of them don't seem to have a clue...