Prophetic 1934 Cartoon

[Leo]

Bogwalker, The government keeps talking about people who "quit looking for work" I think this is a lie, developed to shift the blame. Once people are off the unemployment rolls, there is no mechanism to track who is looking for work. It defies logic to believe that people who have lost their unemployment checks (and their ability to by groceries) will just quit looking for work.

Work One has a junk website that makes it look like they really have all this work available. I have jumped through hoops on their BS website, gone through endless links, populated 100's of fields for these sites only to get to a message that says "this job is no longer available". Or sometimes after wasting 1/2 hour of time find out it is a volunteer position. I have been requested to interview for jobs that are an hour and a half drive each way that pays $8.00 and hour. In other words the job does not pay enough after taxes to cover the commute cost. If you refuse one of these, you are listed as refused to work. It seems to me the only people that really get benefit from their program are the people who work for the program.

 

[LPMan59]

A single wage earner can still raise a family with little debt (except a mortgage), depending on his or her chosen profession. It is true that it is difficult to make a career out of putting pin A into slot B for 8 hours a day anymore, but that is not completely attributable to politics. Many jobs simply don't exist anymore because technology has made them obsolete. You either get an education to make yourself useful in the new global economy, or you don't.

The average Joe doesn't care about those other metrics, because those are things that are way out of his control. Interesting discussion, but at the end of the day, I'm not going to waste my life worrying about such heady topics. Economies change, ebb and flow. We have the largest economy in the world, and also one of the highest GDPs. If this is what 80 years of doom looks like, I'm not gonna lock myself in the bunker just yet.

BTW, unemployment is at 7.7% now. Lowest in 4 years.

Have a good day.

wait.....

 

[CountryBoy1981]

A single wage earner can still raise a family with little debt (except a mortgage), depending on his or her chosen profession. It is true that it is difficult to make a career out of putting pin A into slot B for 8 hours a day anymore, but that is not completely attributable to politics. Many jobs simply don't exist anymore because technology has made them obsolete. You either get an education to make yourself useful in the new global economy, or you don't.

The average Joe doesn't care about those other metrics, because those are things that are way out of his control. Interesting discussion, but at the end of the day, I'm not going to waste my life worrying about such heady topics. Economies change, ebb and flow. We have the largest economy in the world, and also one of the highest GDPs. If this is what 80 years of doom looks like, I'm not gonna lock myself in the bunker just yet.

BTW, unemployment is at 7.7% now. Lowest in 4 years.

Have a good day.

I highly encourage you to check out this website: Alternate Unemployment Charts

Shadow stats has compiled the unemployment numbers and used all 3 methods to calculate the unemployment numbers. The blue line, labeled as "ShadowStats," is the method that was used to calculate the unemployment numbers during the Great Depression Era. Let me remind you that the highest unemployment rate during the Great Depression was 23%. The chart indicates that we were at 20% in 2009 and now have slumped to over 23% unemployment (which is the worst it ever was during the Great Depression). So if the official government 7% number lets you feel all good inside, ignore this and stay a sheep!

 

[Dirtebiker]

I am easily living a better quality of life than my grandparents ever did, and also have a higher standard of living than my parents. This is economically speaking, but I'm doing just fine in the family department as well. Married 25 years this year, kids are grown and doing just fine. Wife has hardly ever worked during our marriage. I have worked long hours over the past years, but don't tell me that men in past generations have not done the same.

I've got some debt, but nothing outrageous compared to my income. Certainly you cannot measure personal happiness by the availability of gadgets, but it certainly is a barometer of the financial side of the equation. Our "poor" people in this nation all have air conditioning, smart phones and by the looks of our obesity problem, plenty to eat. I cannot account for their personal happiness, as there exist plenty of happy poor people and miserable rich people, but at any rate, I think that the economic side of the argument is what is more directly affected by politics than the personal side. Also, YOUR idea of a quality life might not be the same as mine. Many people choose to be miserable, although by any fair and objective analysis, they are doing fine.

I can agree with most of that.

BTW, unemployment is at 7.7% now.
.

You don't really believe that, do you?

 

[mistap]

Not naming names, but I think someone in this thread has been sampling the Kool-aid again...

 

[CarmelHP]

I highly encourage you to check out this website: Alternate Unemployment Charts

He doesn't care. He's pretty much said that as long as everything is OK at his house, everything is working fine. Complacency is the enemy of good government.