The Big Short & The Cost of Unemployment

The Big Short told the story of the 2007/8 housing market collapse and banking irregularities and the subsequent economic collapse in an engaging way that meant I came out of the movie feeling entertained and educated.

The story is one we are somewhat familiar with and one we certainly know a lot more about by the end of the movie. However one thing mentioned, hit a chord for me. Among the banking and housing terms and the stories of cover ups and high finance greed, it was mentioned that in the US, every time unemployment increases by a percentage that 40,000 people die.

I checked. And yes, according to Thomas and Carson (2014)  this is, pretty much, as they put it:

'The Cost of Unemployment'

Thomas and Carson (2014) mention the costs 'in human terms' as eroding 'morale and self-esteem', destroying motivation and positive behaviour patterns and increasing negative social behaviour , 'morbidity, mental illness and crime' (p. 300).

Thomas and Carson discuss a study where a 'one-percent-point increase in the unemployment rate will be associated with 37,000 deaths' (Ibid).

These deaths include:

• 20,000 heart attacks
• 920 suicides
• 650 homicides

In the UK the Trade Union Congress (TUC,  2010) found the 'costs of unemployment' to include higher mortality (including infant and maternal), increased ill health (mental and physical), increased substance abuse and increased poverty related other issues.

The cost to children includes  all the fall out from the above, such as:

• 'by the age of 2, the children of long-term unemployed parents were up to an inch shorter than the children of other parents' (p.6)
• 'the death rate for children of parents classified as never having worked or long-term unemployed was 13 times that for children whose parents worked in higher managerial or professional occupations' (Ibid).

We could think of the 'big short' as that of the toddlers who are, because of other people's greed, shorter than their peers. At least they are not part of the real 'Big Short' - all those who are dead - the real cost of greed.

Thomas, W. L. and Carson, R. B. (2014) The American Economy: How it Works and How it Doesn't, Routledge
TUC (2010) The Costs of Unemployment, a TUC Briefing to Mark the European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion, 

Room

'Room' by Emma Donoghhue has had a great movie interpretation of the book, capturing the atmosphere, characters and situation of living for the first five years of a life locked up in a room. I cried through most of it and was riveted by the limited (but vast) world view of a five year old. It replicates the skewed perspectives which come from an unusual upbringing in a restricted environment.

This story is certainly a 'different kind of true' and the idea that 'everyone's got a different story' has special resonance.

My childhood story was certainly set on a stage larger than a room. It included rooms, houses, schools and playgrounds, fields and roads and cities and counties. But for all its horizons it was usually limited to the people in the vicinity and usually not much farther than a room. 

However big the house or however far I traveled, it was one room at a time and even when phoning home it was just from one room to another.  

In many places I've traveled I've seen a family live in a room, converting it at night to sleeping quarters by laying out bedding and clearing it away in the day to live. It has made me question my 'need' for so many rooms in my home, despite the modest size of our maisonette. 

My rooms:

1 room just to sleep in

1 room just to wash in

1 room just to toilet in

1 room just to cook in

1 room to lead me to the other rooms downstairs

1 room to lead me to the other rooms upstairs

1 room just to sit in

It seems ridiculous that many of our rooms are only used for a portion of the day and unused the rest. The nearest I've come to living in less wasteful accomodation is when I have lived in bedsits which convert from day to night and camping which is an all-in-one with communal toilets. 

And that is just our houses. What about our workplaces. Billions of rooms which are only used for a portion of the day, week and year while there are people sleeping in the streets calling a doorway their 'room'.

According to Crisis, last year 7581 people slept rough on the streets of London. And for every rough sleeper in London 100 people are in hostels and 1100 households are in overcrowded accomodation.

With all those empty rooms.

Stephen Hawking, The Theory of Everything and My Dislocated Thumb

Watching, The Theory of Everything I was reminded of when I saw Stephen Hawking in the Science Museum in London and why I had to explain to the customs officer in JFK airport in New York, why I had dislocated my thumb. The officer had already asked if I had ever lived in Washington, as someone with my name who had done 'some bad things' lived there and after the retina scan and fingerprints of one hand he was suspicious of the hand in the sling. As I gingerly placed my fingers in the scanner one by one and then my thumb, he asked my how it had happened. 

Stephen Hawking, 18th of August 2014, Science Museum, London

The story made perfect sense to everyone else who I had told, although they knew me and thus it would make sense. However the officer was not impressed. So I started by saying how I was a youth worker (which needed translation) and was at the Science Museum in London with a group of ten to thirteen year olds waiting for them with all their gear at the meeting point, in the Launch Pad when I heard a voice simulator. I turned around to see which machine made the Stephen-Hawking-like-sound and saw it was Stephen Hawking. I, grabbed all the gear, in excitement and rushed to find the young people to tell them. 

All seemed to go well from here. I found one girl and checked she knew who Stephen Hawking was

and when she said she did, told her that he was just around the corner. She didn't believe me. There was much 'Yes he is' and 'No he isn't' going on before she only believed me when she saw him with her own eyes. Rounding up the rest there was great interest and excitement and we talked to some of the staff who told us that they didn't even know he was coming until that morning because they couldn't be trusted to keep it secret. He was there with his grandchildren, which was a surprise, as we hadn't even known he had grand-kids but were delighted to share the time in the museum with such a major figure of science who was simply spending time with his grandchildren. The staff member admitted feeling nervous when she was explaining the activities in case he told her she was wrong.

We couldn't believe the first time we took a group of young people to the Science Museum that  Stephen Hawking was there with his grandchildren! It certainly made it memorable. That and my dislocated thumb!

Now you wonder what is the connection between my dislocated thumb and Stephen Hawking? Well I was at the museum on Monday the 18th of August, and at the doctor on Wednesday the 20th getting the pain in my thumb checked out as I was flying to New York on Thursday the 21st. The doctor asked if I'd fallen or knocked it or done anything that would cause it to dislocate. I said no, nothing had happened but I said that I was hypermobile so that could have been it. All I wanted to know was if I should rest it or use it. I was told to keep it immobile in a sling.

This was how I ended up at JFK explaining to the customs officer why it was that I was wearing a sling and why it was related to Stephen Hawking. It had been a long flight. A flight which gave me time to mull over the recent events. Time for me to replay the incident in the Science Museum and see the exact moment I dislocated my thumb. 

There I was, I heard the synthesised voice. I turned around. I was so shocked when I realised it was actually Stephen Hawking that I just grabbed all the bags and coats and rushed to get the young people. That's when it happened. I remembered the pain. Then remembered quickly ignoring the pain and readjusting my hand to rush with excitement to share the experience with the young people. It was Stephen Hawking!

I recounted the story to the customs officer, as I have here and to other people. It does help if you know who Stephen Hawking is. The ten to thirteen year olds did. He didn't. And that was the end of that.