US recession, Steel, rail, teachers, Israel

[Max Sawicky]

. . . Now, this is an odd thing.  If my personal economy grows by
zero from one year to the next (zero corrected for inflation,
of course) it means my living standard doesn't change.  Big
deal; I have lived through many such years.  On the other
hand, if the _national_ economy experiences zero growth, dire
suffering and disorder results.  Or at least people get very
depressed about it.  This difference strikes me as odd.  I'm
sure there's some simple explanation.

mbs:  ZG with population growth obviously means
less real per head.  ZG also means that many
below the mean see negative growth, which is
a bummer.  Negative growth plus anemic positive
growth makes the natives restless.

Job churning increases, and the transition costs
of this are also an aggravation to the families
in question.