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The 4.2% Lie. REAL unemployment rate is 24.3%. That's 1 in 4 Americans functionally unemployed

J

Jack2aTee

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The 4.2% "official" unemployment rate touted by Biden and now by our Chimp in Chief, Donald Trumpanzee is garbage--pure shit. It's a jimmied contrived number using smoke and mirrors to make a failed economy seem like it's doing all right when everyone with an ounce of brains can see it's crashed and burned.

"According to the Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity (LISEP), the real unemployment rate is NOT 4.2%. It’s 24.3%.

That’s not a typo. Nearly one in four Americans is “functionally unemployed”—a term that doesn’t show up in White House briefings or central bank transcripts but might be the most important labor market metric you’ve never heard of.

Let’s cut through the fog. The official Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) unemployment rate—called the U-3—counts you as “employed” if you worked just one hour in the past two weeks. Yes, one hour."

Repairing this steaming pile of shit called the American economy starts with acknowledging the problem that 1 out of every 4 Americans--which was the unemployment rate during the Great Depression--is unemployed even if they manage to squeeze in a few hours per week walking the neighbor's dogs.

The 4.2% Lie

One in four Americans is functionally unemployed. No one in power wants to talk about it.
www.bullionbite.com
 
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I agree that the way we calculate unemployment is misleading but I can't see either side falling on the sword to fix it.
 
It's absolute true. If you look at labor participation rates. Only 62% are actually working. And of those 62% working some are hardly working at all. People whine here a lot but America has it easy. I travel to counties like Indonesia and Malaysia and you see old people (like 70 or 80) working all the time.

Labor Force Participation Rate

View data of the percentage of the total U.S. population that is neither employed nor actively seeking work.
fred.stlouisfed.org
 
Wage stagnation has been quite a problem for quite some time.

We could have a more LIVABLE wage as a minimum wage.

I’m all for it.

Let’s see those Congress critters get on raising the federal minimum wage.

Think the MAGA Congress is game?

How about an eVerify mandate to make sure that employers are using legal labor?

They ready for that?
 
The last time Bushy two was President and on the eve of implementation, illegals self deported in droves. We were snowbirding in Yuma at the time. Pick-up trucks, Chevy Suburbans, even semi-tractors and 53 foot trailers were stolen and loaded up with loot such as windows, doors, copper wiring, light and plumbing fixtures from rental housing, even the steel irrigation gates and manhole covers for their scrap value and summarily driven through the border crossings into Mexico under the amused eye of the Mexican border agents.

Within a month, when it became apparent there would be no active policing of E-Verify, they came back to the very jobs they held before and into the same houses they rented before.

The states of Texas and Arizona would dry up and blow away without the cheap labour illegals provide.
 

As of 2023, GDP per capita in US dollars was:
Indonesia - $4,876
Malaysia - $11,379
United States - $82,769

One thing that's become increasingly to me over just the past few weeks about MAGA is that it really just hates being a rich country. That's the key to understanding this push for eliminating our scientific research, turning away international students, tearing down our institutions of higher education, discrediting the very idea of expertise and our domination of the knowledge economy, scoffing at the idea that we have the means and desire to buy stuff from the rest of the world. It's really all about forgoing education (and ownership of extravagances like too many pencils) in favor of everyone working in a factory until we're in our 80s. For a long time I thought they just didn't want to lead the First World, not it's becoming clear they don't even want the U.S. to be part of it.
 
Allan said:
Out of curiosity what is the yardstick they use to determine unemployment rate?
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People who are not working and looked for work in the two weeks (?) leading up to the survey are considered unemployed. If you didn’t look for work then you aren’t considered to be participating in the labor force and don’t count. It’s their quick and dirty way of weeding out retirees and other people who don’t need to work.
 
Wut? Why would a retiree who is not looking for work and does not need the money be included as unemployed? What in the world are you reading?
 
Anybody who quotes piss-poor US wages in foreign counties obviously never been there. In Indonesia you can get a excellent meal in a restaurant for $4 vs. $30 in America. And you don't even have to tip. Matter of fact, its cheaper to eat out than cook it yourself. This is a artifact of having a labor participation rate of close to 100%. Everyone finds a way to make themselves useful. Even though you may think they're third world counties these places are actually quite modern and livable. And no the people aren't depressed that they're living in 'poverty' rather they're probably happier than we are.
 
dmpi said:
This is an artifact of having a labor participation rate of close to 100%.
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No, the price of eating out in Indonesia isn’t as low as it is because of their labor participation rate.

Where on earth do you get that idea from? Pull it straight out of your ass?
 

Cool.

I wish you luck on your relocation to Indonesia.
 
Four day work weeks. Single payer. Universal child care. 7 weeks paid vacation, mandatory. Something similar to the German no-contact rule. And half of all board members elected by labor. That's how to start.
 
reinaert said:
Four day work weeks. Single payer. Universal child care. 7 weeks paid vacation, mandatory. Something similar to the German no-contact rule. And half of all board members elected by labor. That's how to start.
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sounds like a utopian dream. who pays for it and where does the money come from to protect it?
 
reinaert said:
Four day work weeks. Single payer. Universal child care. 7 weeks paid vacation, mandatory. Something similar to the German no-contact rule. And half of all board members elected by labor. That's how to start.
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That has to be the most moronic policy statement I've read today. Congratulations, you clearly have a deep understanding of your fellow libs here at DP.
 
I wonder if the denominator in those calculations include elementary school kids and nursing home residents.
 
reinaert said:
Yeah, most European countries are utopian.

From the needlessly wealthy oligarchs. Whole point of the program.
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Can't speak for your country, but we could take 100% from every wealthy "oligarch" here and not make a dent. But to be honest, you lost me at "needlessly".
 
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