«Some years ago, I served as a lay pastor. In the Mormon Church, we don’t have full-time or paid pastors, so individual members like me are asked to assume that responsibility. I served a congregation or a group of congregations in the Boston area for about fourteen years. Among these were inner-city and Spanish-, Chinese-, and Portuguese-speaking congregations. I cannot count the number of times I consoled or counseled a person who had lost a job. Not one of them, of course, saw their unemploymnet as «a good thing for the national economy.» It was instead a deeply traumatic personal experience. The resultant stress caused a few people to gain weight, but most lost quite a lot. When the unemployment lingered, people often aged. Sometimes problems in the marriage or at home developed. And these things occurred even though these people were not destitute; when needed, they received help from the church and from family as well as unemployment benefits they may have earned.
For some, when they found new jobs, they received better or at least equal opportunity and pay. For many, that was not the case. When the new position was an upgrade, people tended to overcome the unemployment experience. But when people could not find at least equal opportunity in a new position, and do so relatively rapidly, there often were sustained and meaningful personal costs. Marriages faltered, faith dwindled, illnesses appeared, countenances changed. Ever since these experiences, unemployment is not merely a statistic to me.»
Mitt Romney (2010) – No Apology: The Case for American Greatness (s. 115-6).
