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90,000,000 Working Age Americans NOT Working

Thank you Bush for giving us a legacy of unemployment and financial collapse.
 
People still are shouting at both parties yet fail to recognize the actual problem. The government cannot hire these people. The best they can do is to offer up programs that might encourage some hiring, but it is never going to get close to 90 million people or more. Our need for labor is decreasing, and as we get more technological it will continue to decrease. We invent machines and tools so we can produce more with less human labor. That doesn't take into account cheap foreign labor in countries that don't live up to US standards of living, and possibly can't. In a place like Hong Kong you simply cannot own as many material things because you do not have the space for them. So you are never going to pull the same demand from them as you do from a bloated american consumer.

This argument that it is the other side that has caused this, and that either side has a solution to a shrinking labor need is a load of crap. We need to start adjusting our ideas of full time employment to coincide with today and not with the first half of the 1900s. If you want more people to have jobs, then you need to divide up the actual labor requirements between more people. That sort of reorganization is going to hurt certain segments of society, namely the rich. The reality is that the rich would see an increase in consumerism and profits from the increase in demand of employment of that many people, but they don't care because in the immediate future it would require them paying more employees to do the job they can have one do.

until some people want to get serious about the vast changes in required labor there will not be a solution. You cannot throw tax breaks at an employer and hope they just hire another person to handle the job one person is doing fine on their own. You also cannot create the demand of a full consumer through welfare programs and disability.
 
I guess trickle down didn't work as advertised.

in reality, we're approaching a post labor economy.
 
CalGun said:
Not in Labor Force (LNS15000000) - FRED - St. Louis Fed

Nice recovery, glad you fired that Jobs Commission and got enough time for golf and gun control.
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I retired early. The thought of an office job after working in the field for 25 years just turned my stomach. Of course, Bush and the banks killed my industry and the conservatives whine every time the Pres tries to do something to help it along.
 
American said:
Trotting out that old tired line, eh?
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It's like the sun rising. So predictable you can set a watch by it.

The truly amazing part is that after 4+ years of failed policies, false hope, and lies there are still millions of people who continue to buy that line.
 
Jack Fabulous said:
It's like the sun rising. So predictable you can set a watch by it.

The truly amazing part is that after 4+ years of failed policies, false hope, and lies there are still millions of people who continue to buy that line.
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And that's exactly the reason it needs repeating every so often. Given time and no voice to the contrary, the GOP would eventually convince everyone that Bush was a saint and that everything was perfect when he left office. :roll:
 
From the Washington Post Vanishing workforce weighs on growth - The Washington Post


Peak % was just over 67% in 2000, dropped to 66% in 2003 following that recession, stayed near 66% through 2008, and then dropped to its present rate of 63%.
 
CalGun said:
Not in Labor Force (LNS15000000) - FRED - St. Louis Fed

Nice recovery, glad you fired that Jobs Commission and got enough time for golf and gun control.
Click to expand...

Let's break it down. We have to switch to the Not Seasonally Adjusted numbers because most of the subsets are too small to be seasonally adjusted: Table A-38 of the Current Population Survey for March 2013 (indents indicate subgroups)
Not in the Labor Force: 90,483,000
Do not want a job now: 84,084,000
Want a job: 6,399,000
Did not search for work in previous year: 3,417,000
Searched for work in previous year but not in past 4 weeks: 2,982,000
Not available to work now: 656,000
Marginally Attached (available to work now): 2,326,000
Discouraged over job prospects: 803,000
Reasons other than discouragement: 1,523,000
Family responsibilities: 175,000
In school or training: 381,000
Ill health or disability: 148,000
Other: 819,000​

So the vast majority of those not in the labor force don't want to work...mostly retirees, disabled, full time students and stay home spouses.

Of those who say they want to work, more than half haven't looked for work in over a year. That makes their claim of wanting to work a little unreliable.

Of those who have looked in the last year, 22% say they couldn't actually take a job if handed to them.

So that leaves us with the Marginally Attached...people who want and are available to work but recently stopped looking and are likely to start looking again: 2.3 million. Out of 90 million.

So how significant is that 90 million number?
 
MoSurveyor said:
And that's exactly the reason it needs repeating every so often. Given time and no voice to the contrary, the GOP would eventually convince everyone that Bush was a saint and that everything was perfect when he left office. :roll:
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Don't kid yourself. The only reason people on the left still recite this chant from their soapboxes is because there is nothing else for them to chant. They can't trumpet their successes and this is their excuse for failure. It remains the loudest and most consistent theme out there. That should tell you something...
 
I like your presentation, it adds a lot of data, thanks!
 
CalGun said:
Not in Labor Force (LNS15000000) - FRED - St. Louis Fed

Nice recovery, glad you fired that Jobs Commission and got enough time for golf and gun control.
Click to expand...

Well hang on now. Theres no reason people have to work if they can afford not to. A stay at home parent for example. Someone who is retired, or rich enough not to work. The real issue is people who want a job but cant find one. And making sure everyone able to, is paying taxes.
 
If Conservatives are so concerned about jobs... where are the jobs bills being proposed by Conservatives?
 
My argument is for Gov't. to gtfo of the way of the free market. Propping up failing banks and companies that cannot get their **** together is not the way to do it. That only promotes failed actions. If you lose money, like most gov't subsidized companies, you deserve to go under.

I also get the fact we need regulations, but it is now to the point they come up with regulations just to justify their jobs. We don't need a new gov't. agency for every aspect of social and economical issues. That is what the purpose of a State is. Why do we have states anymore if the gov't. is going to control everything that happens in the State? If they would just stop trying to control everything, and failing miserably at it, we might be on the way to recovery by now.

But no, they try to control every little aspect of business and social issues. Gov't. is out of control and needs to be downsized, at least 50% across the board. 100% in Education. Give education back to the states. Look at the situation in Atlanta.....cheating to get grades up in order to get more fed money. Is that what we want? I am sure this isn't the only incident either. They just happened to get caught. I could go on and on about how the gov't. attempts at control leads to more problems than it solves, but I have a job to do.
 
Tettsuo said:
If Conservatives are so concerned about jobs... where are the jobs bills being proposed by Conservatives?
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Sustainable jobs don't result from 'jobs bills' , else every country in the world would have full employment.
 
Wiseone said:
I'm not saying your data is wrong but if you're using it as a an indicator of recover than we've been in recession since the mid 70s more or less, which doesn't make sense.
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I heard 1979 was the last year the labor participation rate was this low. I don't blame Obama for that so much. Americans are getting lazier and more entitled.
 
Tettsuo said:
If Conservatives are so concerned about jobs... where are the jobs bills being proposed by Conservatives?
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44 of them were sent from the House over to the Senate never to be seen or heard from again.
You need to ask reid what happened to them.
 
False chart.

See the population is going up so the " not working" population will also go up.......

But as a %, how about you show that.....
 
Tettsuo said:
If Conservatives are so concerned about jobs... where are the jobs bills being proposed by Conservatives?
Click to expand...

H.CON.RES.25
Latest Title: Establishing the budget for the United States Government for fiscal year 2014 and setting forth appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal years 2015 through 2023.

Jobs bills to conservatives means establishing stable finances, reducing regulations and taxes. These policies are in the budgets and approprations bills that the House has passed. Once in a while youll actually see a bill called 'jobs bill' which has specific programs like training and such, but thats not generally the way conservatives help job creation.

577 13-Sep H R 6365 On Passage P National Security and Job Protection Act
568 12-Sep H R 5544 On Passage P Minnesota Education Investment and Employment Act
552 2-Aug H R 6169 On Passage P To provide for expedited consideration of a bill providing for comprehensive tax reform
545 1-Aug H R 8 On Passage P To extend certain tax relief provisions enacted in 2001 and 2003, and for other purposes
536 26-Jul H R 4078 On Passage P To provide that no agency may take any significant regulatory action until the unemployment rate is equal to or less than 6.0 percent
511 25-Jul H R 6082 On Passage P Congressional Replacement of President Obamas Energy-Restricting and Job-Limiting Offshore Drilling Plan

for starters.
 
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