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The political season has begun in earnest, with each side putting forth facts and figures hoping that the persuasive power of statistics will bolster the weaker argument. It was Mark Twain who popularized the comment attributed to Disraeli, to wit, that there are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics. So don't be impressed by the fact that the most popular unemployment rate being bandied about dropped to 8.1 percent in April from 8.2 percent in March.
Progress? Not so. Paradoxically, the reason for the drop is negative, not positive. It is due solely to the fact that 342,000 discouraged workers who were seeking employment dropped out of the labor force and are no longer counted as unemployed. Without that withdrawal, the unemployment rate would have risen to 8.4 percent in April. In fact, if the labor force participation rate had remained where it was in June 2009, when the recession officially ended, the headline jobless rate would be north of 11 percent.
The irony is that the Obama administration expended its political capital on healthcare and its social welfare agenda in lieu of a range of policies to nurture strong, durable economic growth. We have instead what might be called the "Less Economy." Unemployment and under*employment mean that as many as a stunning 30 million Americans are now facing less work and less reward for the work they can get.
So what the left is now reduced to is saying Romney won't be any better than obama? Well, hell, I'll take my chances on Romney. So will a huge majority of Americans this November.
I know it upsets me when I see people that were once doing well, as in making ends meet, now struggling to get groceries. The same ones that are currently unemployed whose benefits have run out and their spouses are underemployed. There is one company I know of that for the third straight year are making their employees take a pay cut.
It's sickening.
I know it upsets me when I see people that were once doing well, as in making ends meet, now struggling to get groceries. The same ones that are currently unemployed whose benefits have run out and their spouses are underemployed. There is one company I know of that for the third straight year are making their employees take a pay cut.
It's sickening.
I hear you! My wife took a 60% pay cut. It's total BS!!!
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