How Did the Great Recession Change America?

The most current issue of The Atlantic focuses on how The Great Recession, as it comes to an end, has changed America. The issue details how we have recovered (or not) after previous recessions and how increasing joblessness will change our society as we know it.
 
In particular, Atlantic contributor Don Peck wrote a compelling piece on the effects of recession and how unemployment will "warp our politics, our culture, and the character of our society for years to come." He bleakly outlines what he calls "an era of joblessness" and the numbers are even more discouraging than the hopeless tone the piece carries.
 
He writes:
 
The economy now sits in a hole more than 10 million jobs deep—that’s the number required to get back to 5 percent unemployment, the rate we had before the recession started, and one that’s been more or less typical for a generation. And because the population is growing and new people are continually coming onto the job market, we need to produce roughly 1.5 million new jobs a year—about 125,000 a month—just to keep from sinking deeper.
 
Yes, the article is grim, but it is an important reality check in terms of what lays ahead of us as a nation on our road to recovery. 
 
Read more about the current economic crisis here, or about whether the Recovery Act is working.
 
(Photo credit: Derek Jensen; C.C. 2.0)