Warning: Don't watch this until you have put all the knives, guns, ropes and prescription meds somewhere safe...

Okay, well, maybe it isn't quite that bad, but I've come across a  very interesting video depiction of the unemployment data by county across the country beginning in January of 2007 through May of 2010. We all know it is bad, but this visual is startling.

"According to the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are nearly 31 million people currently unemployed -- that's including those involuntarily working parttime and those who want a job, but have given up on trying to find one. In the face of the worst economic upheaval since the Great Depression, millions of Americans are hurting. "The Decline: The Geography of a Recession," as created by labor writer LaToya Egwuekwe, serves as a vivid representation of just how much. Watch the deteriorating transformation of the U.S. economy from January 2007 -- approximately one year before the start of the recession -- to the most recent unemployment data available today."

I have absolutely no idea how to reverse this, but it seems like a no-brainer that if we don't figure out a way to provide jobs in this country, we're in a world of hurt.

I'm not normally a conspiracy theory kinda girl, but a case could be made that "big business" is sitting back waiting for the repubs to take over again before they will start hiring. Or waiting for the government to sweeten the pot. Either shows a blatant disregard for the suffering of real live people.

Any thoughts about what steps the government could be taking to provide real, family-supporting jobs RIGHT NOW, that wouldn't just disappear once the projects were completed, didn't rely on people spending money they don't have on stuff they don't need and would get this country working again?  I'm getting seriously concerned that 10%-15% unemployment or even more may be the new normal, and if that is true, we're in for some really ugly times.