Friday, August 06, 2004
Bush's Economic Plan Working - NOT!
Massive tax cuts for the rich apparently aren't creating enough US jobs to keep up.
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From the BBC
"US employers added just 32,000 workers to their staff numbers last month, as far weaker employment figures than expected were revealed on Friday.
The addition to the "non-farms payroll" was the lowest this year, and smaller than the most gloomy estimate.
...
'We're not satisfied," US Treasury Secretary John Snow told reporters in Pittsburgh. "We're encouraged, though, by the fact that the unemployment rate came down.'"
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Note the "snow job" regarding the "lower unemployment rate." The unemployment rate is calculated from the number of people RECEIVING UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE. If your benefits run out - you're not unemployed anymore, even if you're not working! When the unemployment rate comes down in a bad job market, this really means lots of people have neither jobs nor unemployment insurance coverage. John Snow claims this is "encouraging."
Economists designed this system when people could spend their entire lives on welfare to separate out folks not wanting to work from those seeking work. Although this is no longer true, it is not politically convenient to re-work the calculation schema to reflect the new reality - so they use the old system for "consistency."
Of course, there are the new jobs for maids, gardeners and servants generated by Mr. Bush's tax cuts for the rich, but this job growth is mainly "cash-only" and is probably underreported in the jobs numbers.
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From the BBC
"US employers added just 32,000 workers to their staff numbers last month, as far weaker employment figures than expected were revealed on Friday.
The addition to the "non-farms payroll" was the lowest this year, and smaller than the most gloomy estimate.
...
'We're not satisfied," US Treasury Secretary John Snow told reporters in Pittsburgh. "We're encouraged, though, by the fact that the unemployment rate came down.'"
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Note the "snow job" regarding the "lower unemployment rate." The unemployment rate is calculated from the number of people RECEIVING UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE. If your benefits run out - you're not unemployed anymore, even if you're not working! When the unemployment rate comes down in a bad job market, this really means lots of people have neither jobs nor unemployment insurance coverage. John Snow claims this is "encouraging."
Economists designed this system when people could spend their entire lives on welfare to separate out folks not wanting to work from those seeking work. Although this is no longer true, it is not politically convenient to re-work the calculation schema to reflect the new reality - so they use the old system for "consistency."
Of course, there are the new jobs for maids, gardeners and servants generated by Mr. Bush's tax cuts for the rich, but this job growth is mainly "cash-only" and is probably underreported in the jobs numbers.
