“All that one gains by falsehood is, not to be believed when he speaks the truth.”
Aristotle
I
I think, therefore I am!
Imagine my surprise when I read in this morning’s LA Times, ( Pravda- 2), and found that the unemployment rate had dropped from 10.2% to 10% overnight! This despite the fact that employers cut 11,000 jobs last month, (the lowest drop in two months.) (http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/12/04/obamas-main-street-tour-faces-frosty-greeting/)
A miracle, a miracle, and we owe it all to Barack Obama, truly the messiah has come! Putting my surprise on hold for a moment, I thought about those stressed out Wall Street barons. Yesterday they were fretting over how much their wives could spend for Hanukkah gifts. No problem now. It would seem now that happy days are here again.
Now back to reality. The unemployment rate is technically defined by people who are in the labor force – i.e. still looking for a job – but can’t find one. The 10.2% official rate is bad enough, but the real figures may be worse. According to the BLS, (Bureau of Labor Statistics), the number of ‘discouraged workers’ rose to 2.4 million. 1.6 million of those have simply given up looking for a job and have not actively looked for work in more than 4 weeks. As such they are not counted in the unemployment rate. (http://briansullivan.blogs.foxbusiness.com/2009/11/06/is-the-real-unemployment-rate-17-5/)
Additionally those who are working part-time but would prefer full-time employment are also not counted in the official number. Add those together, and the BLS reports that the “U-6″ unemployment rate is actually 17.5%. (http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t12.htm)
Putting aside my skepticism at the administration’s obvious obfuscation, (lies), in the numbers, I will concede that many miracles do take place around the holidays and to be fair maybe this is just one of them. Just a thought.
William McCullough
Milagro! For those of you living in the past milagro is miracle in Spanish. I don’t know abouy the rest of you but I will be prepared to move south of the border when the next industrial revolution takes off.
I stopped believing in miracles when Bush refused to close our borders 0n 9/12/2001. But now that we have an administration that can defy the laws of mathematics, physics can’t be far behind.
The fix is in, that is the cabal between Wall Street and Washington. When the loss of a mere 11,000 jobs in the private sector is interpreted as a substantial enough gain to drop the unemployment rate from 10.2 to 10.0, although the true rate is between 17% and 20%(don’t tell anybody) the stage is being set for the next round of economic stimuli. If it cost only $800,000,000,000 to lose 11,000 jobs then for another $73,400,000,000,000,000 we can lose an additional 100,000,000 jobs; truly a bargain. From the glad tidings issued forth from the WW2-Washington and Wall street- this will be money well spent.
That is about as ridiculous as the idea that this country’s economic policies which continues to shred its manufacturing base and legislate tax policy that should scare the hell out of anyone considering hiring or starting a business is going to revitalize job growth. In tandem with this more and more lower rung wage earners are qualifying to pay $0 income tax thereby shifting the burden to those in the middle and upper middle wage earning sectors.Although, with due diligence, the average consumer can live off the same wages by eating, wearing and driving less; you know those silly want/needs which we as over educated under funded consumers can do without if it is for the greater economic good. It would almost appear to be patriotic if one loses his job since doing so will drive down the unemployment rate. Quick, patriot, turn out the lights, i can see your carbon footprint!
Good one Bill keep the good works buddy.
Why thank you my brotha!