Let’s be clear — unemployment is roughly 25-45% in the U.S. — give or take. It depends on what you consider an unemployed person to be. My definition is simple — an unemployed person is any person seeking a job because he cannot make a living wage. The government will count a college graduate who lost their high tech job once he goes to work at a minimum wage job EMPLOYED — ha, ha — even though this person will lose his home and cannot support his family.
It is amazing — if it wasn’t gravely sad — to hear people complain about not enough jobs. This is not a problem that is just appearing. It has been going on a long time and will continue. America makes it very easy for companies to downsize, move jobs to impoverished countries, and otherwise exploit their employees. In America this is known as “good business” — immoral, yes — unethical, yes — legal, yes. If you want to demand an employee work 80 hours per week, you can do that in the U.S. If the employee doesn’t like it he can quite — no problem — there are plenty of other people willing to do the 80 hours. Could Congress restrict the number of hours an employee can work to 35-40? Of course, much of Europe has such laws. Could Congress demand that all employees get 4-6 weeks of vacation to year. Sure, much of the world does that. Yet, never any pro-employee action from Congress. No — employees — you can unionize to get a little power over the employers. Well, companies — enjoy your decreased sales because people have no money. Meanwhile, technology is replacing lots of jobs as well with fewer and fewer people needed to provide the technology. This has been a trend for a long while and will continue for a long while as well.
I don’t JUST hold Obama or Congress responsible for not creating jobs. I hold them responsible for letting companies act in ways that eliminate jobs. I hold Obama and Congress responsible for not passing laws where there are no humane minimums — minimum wages, health care, etc. The argument always goes — if we give our employees more then we can hire less of them. The fact is companies are hiring less of them anyway in order to maintain outrageous profits. There are examples every day of companies making large profits, laying off people. Verizon just announced a 10,000 person layoff.
Until America wakes up that there will be no America without jobs for its citizen it will continue to go down. Or there will be a revolution which I believe is inevitable because real change never happens until the citizens rise up and take back their country.
Yesterday, there was a big blah, blah about another terrorist attack. I could care less. — why? — Because every day America is attacked by the terrorism for corporatism, greed, corruption, and lack of empathy. Whatever little damage some foreign terrorist can do, is nothing compare to the terrorism present in America every single day.
America is doomed.
You are really starting to scare me now. You might now qualify as my alter ego. Yes, unemployment is as high as you say. Hell, I’m unemplyed because I’m very unemployed. I sold a half cord of firewood today. First sale in 2 weeks. Hard to live on $150/biweekly. And I agree that this underemployment/unemployment crap has been forming since the most evil bastard on earth, Preseedunt Ronaldo “Alzheimer’s” Reagan set his worthless ass down in the White House. I’m not going to call it the White House anymore. I’m calling it the Black House, not because of Obama’s skin color, but because of the darkness and evil that eminates from it. They should turn off the lights inside and around it so that the sheeple can grasp it’s truely sinister tone.
America has been gutted. Ross Perot’s “sucking sound” is now being heard everywhere. The jobs have flown off the shelf to 5th World shitholes where people make under 3 dollars/day. And our Congress and Preseedunt have allbeen both complicit and instigative. They relished it!! They buttered our bunns!!! The piper has arrived and wants to be paid for his piping. I always said,”If you want to dance, you have to pay the fiddler”. But Americans have been so dumbed down by being forced to attend gubsamunts HI! SKrools that they don’t get it. We live in a toxic nation where disease, mental illness, celebrity, sports pay. And the sheeple eat this crap up. Remember, Nero fiddled while Rome burned. Well, Rome is burning!! Rome (the US) is worse than Devil’s Night in Detroilet.
I’m truely glad that you hould Congress and the Preseedunt accountable for this quagmire. I hold my girlfriend. That’s all.I don’t hold her accountable, I just hold her. No more, no less. Squishy gals are way more interesting than gubsamunts assholes.
Until AmeriKa wakes up? You must still be suffering from that “hope and change” thing. AmeriKa is in a coma,maybe totally braindead and on a respirator. It will never wake up nor will it ever return to life. It is Karen Ann Quinlan!!!
I’ll agree with you that “terrorism”, the worst kind of it, is being perpetrated by gubsamunts assholes, in conjunction with about 5 international, toxic corporations, and the international bankers. We are truely Nigg*ers in every sense of the word. I try not to pay too mucn attention myself. Raises my blood pressure, cortisol levels, and angst, and irritates my cancer, which is nearly or totally gone now.
Hope we didn’t lose our friend Rick. I always like it when Rick chimes in. He’s intelligent. Always offers great insights.
Dinner tonight: garden coleslaw, homemade dressing using extra virgin olive oil and coconut oil, clams, avocado, barley and watercress juice, and herbal tea. Hang in there everybody. The going is about to get tough.
Thank You Les for your kind words. I apologize for my silence lately but I have been dedicating my free time lately to the one thing that gives me comfort: writing. Regarding the jobs report, it is absolutely stunning the amount of doublethink that is being promoted by the government. Orwell would be proud to know how his novel 1984 is being applied effectivelly(actually he would be ashamed). As I may have mentioned I majored in Mathematics in college. There is a simple rule in Mathematics and that is…numbers are supposed to add up. But in the world of orwellian err i mean government Math 2+2 can equal 4, 5, 86 or even the batman symbol if they so desire. Follow this carefully every month about 150000 people join the workforce…Last month there were 20,000 fewer jobs than the month before…So how can there be Less unemployed people than before???? Only In the fantastic world of Government math. Of course, the basic immutable laws of mathematics mean nothing to those in charge. They are preaching to an audience that they assume is stupid… And why not??? Everything Americans do anymore suggests stupidity and ignorance. We are not stupid. We are among the few who actually see what is happening…Perhaps the way the Solzenhetsyns and the Sakharov’s could see through the Soviet propaganda. A day may come when we may have to pay a price for it too.
There will never again be enough jobs for Americans because those in charge want it that way. The more desparate people are the more they are forced to settle for the scraps from their master’s tables. Read about Mathusian’s heirarchy of needs. It states that as long as people are focused merely on survival they cannot aspire to higher development. Ideas like Justice, Democracy, freedom and human dignity will be tossed aside so good old fashioned Corporate fascism can reign supreme.
We have been made into sheep and the worst part of it is we were instrumental in the transformation. When jobs were being sent overseas by the boatloads, where were the mass strikes? The united outrage? It was lost somewhere amid the glitter of the cheap trinkets being sold at WalMArt. As long as it happened to someone else, who cared as long as we could get our cheap junk. How little value we placed on those people who were supposedly ‘our fellow Americans’. Its too late now, the genie is out of the bottle and its here to destroy.
Ben Franklin once said “we either all hang together or we all hang separately” . He made the comment to illustrate how important it was for Americans to be united. Somehow we forgot that nation. We became a nation of ‘screw you I got mine’ and its all about”me me me”. If we had ignored Ben Franklin’s back then we might all still be drinking tea and praising the queen. Because we ignore it all, we’ll all soon be collecting cans, eating out of dumpsters and sleeping in cardboard boxes while the new Royalty enjoys its castles.
I love America but this isn’t America. I don’t know what it is anymore….
Rick, good to hear from you. Once again, I agree. I voted for Perot when he ran for president. He was the only one who addressed the “hughe sucking sound of jobs going south” (and east and west for that matter. I always saw the danger in exporting our manufacturing base to the third world. And they really haven’t benefited either, because of corruption and lax or no laws, they are totally expoited in sweat shops. The only jobs that “fair trade produced are sweat shop shoe factories and clothing (sewing) factories in places like honduras, China, and El Salvador. The workers still don’t have running water or electricity. They just work 12 hours/day for a pittance. I don’t really understand mathematics, but I can do arithmatic. And I agree, 2+2 can easily equal 5 to the government. I think they call it “new math”. I majored in Politica Science, was drafted, went back to college again after the Army tour and got a second degree in Agronomy, with a concentration in soil science. Lots of physics, chemistry, plant science, genetics, biology, botany, etc…. I worked for the disgusting USDA for 15 years, mainly as a food inspector. Hence, my interest in health and nutrition. I am a self taught herbalist and natureopath. I have meticulously studied natural health, disease prevention, and nutrition for over 25 years. I’ve read everything that can be read and read more daily. This is why I stress that the people who know what is happening MUST take control of their own health and stay far away from the medical mafia and Bog Pharma. They are corrupt thugs who will only dope you into a stupor. Disease is big business. There is no health care, only disease management for obscene profits. They won’t be satisfied until everyone is a patient. I believe the day will come when we will have to pay the price for not conforming to propaganda. That is why I want out. This country is so broke now that it is hard to get out. And the sheeple are stupid, and ignorant to boot. Bread and circuses are the rule of the day. Jerry Springer reruns, American Idol, celebrity worship, bells and whistles. Doesn’t matter. Bling!!!!
I agree that it is too late now. I have friends who haven’t worked for months. I live in a very poor county in Georgia. The dumpsters are picked daily. Wherever I drive, there are people collecting aluminium cans along the road. People now compete for the “bad produce” in the dumpsters behind the grocery stores. When all of this is exhausted, what next? I think we (on this blog) know what is coming. In fact it is already here and will only escalate. My Advice, learn gardening, herbalism, exercise, nutrition, have emergency supplies on hand, have an alternative water source, and be armed. Hopefully I’ll be lliving in the tropics where I can grow good healthy food year round before martial law is instilled. It is now too late to “save” America. The ball is in motion.