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You're also starting the conversation by quoting an incorrect statistic. Don't start a conversation with misleading information.
Show me the specific government stat that specifically includes the population you think is erroneously listed.
Hint: U6 ain't it.
I'll concede that that specific paragraph could be phrased a little more tightly, but it's a long article and it goes on to make its case. Which, I find amusingly, is much the case I've been making for the last year - about the disconnect between the stats and a changed reality.
Show me the specific government stat that specifically includes the population you think is erroneously listed.
Hint: U6 ain't it.
I'll concede that that specific paragraph could be phrased a little more tightly, but it's a long article and it goes on to make its case. Which, I find amusingly, is much the case I've been making for the last year - about the disconnect between the stats and a changed reality.
So that we're on the same page, you believe when the author of the article said "It counts only people actively looking for work", that it was not referring to U3?
Because other measures of unemployment include things like discouraged workers, which is where students/stay at home moms who couldn't find a job would fall. With respect, a "disconnect between stats and reality" doesn't exist. What you're seeing is a disconnect between reality (statistics) and your opinion.
Because other measures of unemployment include things like discouraged workers, which is where students/stay at home moms who couldn't find a job would fall.
The article does not say 'discouraged workers.' It says those not actively seeking or thinking of seeking employment. Not the same thing at all.
The article does not say 'discouraged workers.' It says those not actively seeking or thinking of seeking employment. Not the same thing at all.
RFC.
From the article "which means it leaves out many students, stay-at-home parents or others who might like jobs if they were available"
That is discouraged workers (U4) and students (U6). U6 actually goes farther than the article, as it includes underemployed people too. U6 is at a multi-decade low right now.
From the article "which means it leaves out many students, stay-at-home parents or others who might like jobs if they were available"
We'll just have to remain mutually anti-semantic on the point. If you think the whole article is invalid because you don't like the way this one definition is phrased, power to you. The overall point is better stated by the article as a whole, and I find the basic question entirely valid and validating.
Econ types who thump the scriptures and thunder about infallibility always give me a laugh, though. Have you met Mircea?
We'll just have to remain mutually anti-semantic on the point. If you think the whole article is invalid because you don't like the way this one definition is phrased, power to you. The overall point is better stated by the article as a whole, and I find the basic question entirely valid and validating.
Econ types who thump the scriptures and thunder about infallibility always give me a laugh, though. Have you met Mircea?
You started a thread with a quote that had incorrect and misleading information. It's difficult to have a serious conversation if that is the starting point.
I'm not sure what you mean by 'infallibility', so you'll have to clarify that point. I never said anything along those lines.
You started a thread with a quote that had incorrect and misleading information. It's difficult to have a serious conversation if that is the starting point.
I'm not sure what you mean by 'infallibility', so you'll have to clarify that point. I never said anything along those lines.
It's well known that the U.S. is on a path of becoming an oligarchy. The divide between the middle and working classes, on the one hand, and the ultra-wealthy and corporations, on the other, has been enlarging for decades, as wages (after inflation) have continued not to rise much over decades, while income for the upper class has skyrocketed. Public education is being underfunded, with funds being diverted to private schools, and certain students plucked out of public schools for charter schools. The rest of the private school students are from the wealthier classes.
Without a good education or good health care, the American Dream is not attainable any longer for many, in any real sense.
As long as all the dark money is in politics, and as long as it takes a ton of money to be in politics, the politicians will be beholden to the big donors, and legislate in their favor. High drug prices, lack of health care, divert funds for educating the middle class to private schools, lower taxes mainly for the super wealthy, allow huge corporations to pay no income taxes, and so on.
Folks, the unemployment numbers have been run the same way for decades. It's published on the BLS site. No manipulation.
The OP is not really about the way the numbers are run.
It's about the pool of people being hired are different. They aren't counted as unemployed, because technically they're not. They "want" a job, but don't "need" a job. So don't actively look very hard for one. They're not on anyone's radar as job seekers. Not on unemployment. But they are not a member of the "long unemployed so gave up looking" group.
That's what it's saying, I think.
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