(Total jobs lost and gained.)
. . . There would be an immediate drive on the part of Congress and the White House to do far more to stimulate the economy, inject more capital into the system, and invest in job-creation measures immediately.
That's Steve Benen of the Washington Monthly on the government's latest job figures. Unemployment rose in November from 9.6 percent to 9.8 percent. We added 39,000 jobs, which isn't enough to keep up with the normal expansion of the workforce, let alone make up for those giant red bars representing jobs lost on Benen's chart. (Get his private-sector only graph here.)
The bigger problem here, the one that should keep every last lawmaker awake at night, is that this problem isn't budging. Unemployment is way, way, way too high, and it's absolutely stuck. The headline rate ticks up and then it ticks down -- it's really all the same. The politics are just as frozen. President Obama wants to tie the Democrats' proposed extension of unemployment benefits to Republicans' proposed extension of the Bush tax cut for the rich. Incoming House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) says we should "stop wasting time" and start handing out those tax cuts for millionaires. Also, we should cut spending, like giving the unemployed the benefits they paid for while working.
And never mind the documented good that unemployment checks do the economy. Mr. Boehner and company are also ignoring a whole lot of pain. It's as though unemployment were an illness, and the unlucky ones among of us have caught it and can't shake it off:
- More than 15 million Americans are out of work.
- The broader unemployment rate is stuck at 17 percent, a historic high.
- The average job search is stuck at more than 33 weeks, even as Republican lawmakers refuse to extend federal unemployment benefits past 26 weeks.
- Some 6.3 million Americans have been out of work at least 27 weeks.
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After months of unemployment in 2009, I've been off the unemployment rolls for a year due to a temporary job followed by some short term part time work. I expect that part time work to end in the next two weeks. I've been looking for full time work for most of the last 6 months with no luck (I'm apparently as likely to be "overqualified" as underqualified.) It's very likely I'll once again be an official unemployment statistic by the end of December.
I know I'm not the only one not represented by the numbers. In fact, even the estimated underemployment numbers I've seen on some progressive websites look low to me. I wonder if we'll ever know how bad this recession really is.
Probably not. I seriously doubt there is anyone in DC that wants us to know that. If they admitted how bad the unemployment picture truly is, there would be a whole new revolution, and it wouldn't be from the Tea Party.
The chart looks like the Loch Ness monster now. Can't figure out how to make a metaphor out of that.....
Try this one (not sure it'll help your metaphor block, though):
4 Million Americans Set To Lose Unemployment Benefits Even If Congress Passes Extension (CHART)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/03/unemployment-benefits-99ers-obama_n_791682.html
I am wondering what happens to people when the unemployment runs out. I am assuming that we - as a nation - do not want people wandering the street homeless and their children starving. So my question is, if these people have to go on welfare or other "safety net" program, how much is this going to cost and who is going to pay for it? Shouldn't this be included in the discussion?
Who's the candidate that predicted the lazy unemployed will be wandering around in bands like gypsies? There's your answer. My observation... the GOP seem to 'prophesy' what in their wildest wet dreams they hope will come true, and then try to make it happen (i.e., by not extending UI benefits, etc.) so they can take credit.
Why do we keep calling them "Bush" tax cuts when they have been in existence for so many years. They are actually now part of the taxing system which, by the way, was in effect during the economic downturn. Calling them "Bush tax cuts" now makes it sound like they are a gift from the Republicans and automatically gives Republicans ownership of all the negotiations. Change the slant to extending the present taxing system or something more creative. Just a thought.
These tax cuts were advanced by Bush and enacted by Republican Congresses (with Democratic enablers). And they had a built-in sunset provision. Calling them 'Bush tax cuts' ensures that they remain hung around the necks of Republicans, especially the very unpopular tax reduction for the very, very, very wealthy.
I'm happy to call them Bush tax cuts for that reason. It began with Reagan, as Thom Hartmann has been telling us and Rachel told us again tonight. Without a doubt, these word games about trying to make low-middle income FEEL part of the club in terms of TAX CUTS there is only a trickle on our heads, and its not money dripping on us.
The Republican prescription is deregulation, began with mergers, stock market hostile takeovers, then outsource jobs. Allow foreign companies access to our resources, allowing them to profit from our supposedly regulated resources. Bring in foreign workers, call things Made in America that send resources out, labor done out of the country, bring in people that will work under less tolerable conditions under work Visa, then blackmail them if they are stay beyond that. Just look at anti union sentiment that is getting WORKING PEOPLE believing low wages are good and unions are bad.
What a con job, people better wake up.
Now there's signs of oil business drying up and foreign companies and big oil people now getting into water... wow, control water... supply side economics... interesting stuff ...
http://www.citizen.org/cmep/Water/us/bulksales/texas/
http://waterwars.wordpress.com/2006/12/20/a-brief-history-of-nestles-water-battles-in-michigan/
http://demopedia.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x569121
I think people better figure out how to regulate and make trade agreements better for us. Follow the billionaires, they now want to have control of our water. We see the connection between lobbying and getting political favors. It has to stop, or we are screwed.
We are already screwed. Citizens United was the last nail if the coffin.
Sorry about the mixed metaphor. Things will have to get a lot worse before the voters will wake up and throw the rascles out. I may not live that long.
David Stockman has been making the rounds advocating the end of Bush tax cuts for everyone. Stockman as you may recall implemented supply-side or trickle-down economics under Reagan. As he was the pioneer in this new idea he was the first to see it fail. When Stockman blew the whistle on supply-side fraud he was "taken to the woodshed" by Reagan. Chris Matthews in his book "Hardball" gives an excellent analysis of this event.
I would like to see tax cuts end for everyone and I believe this is what will happen. Maddow asked Sanders on her show if there was something going on that we were missing, some game being played under the table. Sanders said no. But I disagree. Republicans are assisting Democrats in letting Bush tax cuts expire. All their hoopla about "tax cuts for all Americans" is a show and they say so straight out. Remember the letter they sent to Reid promising to oppose all legislation unless the Democrats cave. Maddow made a big deal of it, saying what else is new. Point is Republicans said they will allow tax cuts to expire. It will take passing a specific bill to reinstate tax cuts. It won't happen.
That letter and the empty threat puzzled me for a while. What was the point of it? Then I realized that, probably, the fact that the Senate Republican minority had brought that chamber to a near standstill since the 2006 midterms is something that hasn't gotten much play on Fox News (sic) and the rest of the right-wing mediaverse. As I don't watch FN I can't be certain. But I'd be very surprised if the average member of the right-wing electorate is aware of what the GOP has been doing in the Senate and have been fed the line that the Democratic Congress is like an out-of-control locomotive. So I suspect that the letter was a play to the GOP's ignorant base, an empty production intended to demonstrate how 'committed' they are now to putting on the brakes. And it will probably work as intended (on anyone who doesn't know any better).
Today, you apply online, either from a job board like CareerBuilder, Hot Jobs or Monster or you apply online at the company’s corporate web site. You upload your résumé and often have to check boxes and answer questions. Some are standard questions like name, address, phone number and such while others more about what type of person you are and what do you think of yourself. I’ve even had to answer math questions.
Most of the time you will never get a reply except for maybe the confirmation e-mail thanking you for applying. Occasionally you will get the rejection e-mail, I got one just 13 minutes after I got the conformation one for the job I had just applied for. You almost never get an interview on the phone or in person. Nobody wants to talk with you and nobody wants to see you. I’ve even gone to the stores in person to speak with the managers and they point me back to their corporate web sites.
The job situation is worse than the media reports it and there seems to be no end in sight.
All true and all too common. And, for each one you fill out online, you spend at least and hour of your precious job search time. As for follow up in the stores, I actually feel sorry for the store managers; I've done it... they know they have openings, but their hands are tied. I've actually had people apologize for the system.
They are rigged, with no room for comments or ideas... just the little routines they run. You have no idea what they've been programmed to look for and no human interface.
Cully, this has been my experience, too. I haven't gotten a single interview from applying on-line and I've been at this for over a year. The two companies I did interview with (one was a series of 6 interviews, the other was a series of 4 interviews) were as a result of knowing someone who referred me. I saw a statistic not too long ago that showed nailing a job as a result of networking at 60% of job searching efforts. Getting a job as a result of on-line job boards was down around 12%, if I recall correctly.
Getting a job these days comes down to who you know, not what you know. The two series of interviews I went through did not result in a job, even though the interviews seemed to go very well and one company went so far as to check references. I'm convinced that my age (54) and experience is actually working against me; no matter who I know!
I saw a story on the local news a few months ago that showed some success at getting a job by volunteering at places like food shelfs, etc.. I was skeptical at first, but then I thought about the fact that my company often does team-building exercises by having groups go to local food shelves. I myself have done that a few times, so I can see where you might meet people and network in those situations. Of course, it also looks good on the resume to have something like that.
When are people going to realize that rich people DON'T create jobs... DEMAND creates jobs. Talk about fooling an entire country... sheesh. And, just exactly how many jobs are the "Wall Street" boys going to create? Just wait until the Wall Street bonus numbers come out... will the revolution be televised?
As a former owner of a small business that grew to $1m in sales annually, I can say that Andrea is 100% right. I never looked at what tax rates were when I started my business. I just looked to see if there was a demand.
Take car dealers for example. They got massive income tax breaks and a slash of the "death tax" (I prefer the term "Spoiled Brat Tax"). But many still lost everything because the economic principles they voted for killed the ability of their customers to use the services dealers offered.
Okay. A cute little story I've told before and will again and again and again.
Just about everyone knows that it was the Second World War that pulled America out of the Great Depression. Most, including the previous resident in Chief just assume that wars are magically good for the economy. That is a gross fallacy. Sun Tzu said that no state benefits from a prolonged state of war. America during the Second World War was a giant exception to that truth, one not to be repeat now or ever again.
What pulled our nation out of the Great Depression was massive deficit spending by the government, on a scale only now being seen again. That spending by the gov't was on war materiale...guns bombs planes tanks bullets jeeps uniforms canteens etc. Those demands were met by Rosie the Riveter in American factories. Importantly, American had a manufacturing economy at that time which exploded with gov't spending and demand. The gov't made back its money spent to Rosie through taxes, payroll taxes, taxes on goods and services used by Rosie, payroll taxes on the people who served Rosie. Through this virtuous cycle and deficit spending which acted as an investment in industry, our nation climbed out of the Depression into its position of economic and technological giant.
As a palliative to the destruction of infrastructure and suffering and as well to foster co-operation between erstwhile enemies, the Marshall Plan was instituted which, through the exportation of some American jobs, helped rebuild the manufacturing sector of German. Unlike America, Germany remained a manufacturing economy which is now second only to China and towers above America today.
Japan was much the same story, but if memory serves, it was in investment sector that tore Japan back down to size - along with most of southeastern Asia, during the Clinton Administration.
Is there a lesson to be learned here? Not according to the Conservatives. more than a service economy, ours is an investment economy. Those who profitted most from the exportation of manufacturing jobs are now into finance - replicating the milieu that brought us the Great Depression, and the stock market crash from the Reagan Administration, with one big diference from the last. Through deregulation all of the firewalls and safeguards have been stripped.
Ultimately, because of the exportation of American jobs abroad there are consequently shrinking markets here in America - fewer jobs, fewer people to buy things. America, market-place of the world. This means that the whole basis of our economy is one giant finite bubble. And those working to get tax breaks for the richest are just looting a cooling corpse.
The tax rates on the wealthy were also at historic highs
"unemployment insurance" like "FICA"(social security) is a tax paid by employers when they pay employees, (employers and employees both pay FICA). those taxes are part of the benefits working americans EARN, by working and being part of the system that taxes the income they earn as well. it is conditional insurance; if you lose that job, and are looking for another or if furlowed temporalily. this is comparible to worker's comp if you get hurt at work.
bottom line, all these things are BENEFITS are working for someone else and having your income taxed. this is more a story of the transfer of wealth from the middle class tax base to the corporations and the elite.
So, Ms Maddow, where is the in depth report on "starve the beast" ????? Dont you think Ameircans have a right to know about it?
it is more like dropping a few pennies to distract you so they can pick up the twenty you dropped over there. this feigned attempt at a hunger strike is nothing more than a money grab.
Earmarks have become a symbol of a Congress that has broken faith with the people. This earmark ban shows the American people we are listening and we are dead serious about ending business as usual in Washington ~ John Boehner
Question for Boehner ~ If taxbreaks for incomes greater than $250K isn't an earmark in disguise, what is it? How is the GOP with you at the helm not "doing business as usual" rather than ending it? Now, let's talk about "CHICKEN CRAP"!!
So elected officials have no obligation to keep their promises to the people who elected them? That IS what earmarks are.
I agree. How about "The Super Jacked-Up, Destroying Years of Economic Principle" Tax Cuts? That has a nice ring to it!
I honestly believe that nothing will happen to help the nation's unemployed, poor, middle class, environment or anything else that is not an entity that contributes vast quantities of money to Republican coffers in the present culture. I look to see my Social Security cut, Medicare benefits cut or eliminated. I have very little hope for the future. Unless something happens and happens soon, I fear terribly for the future of our country. I went unemployed more often than not during the Bush years, finally losing my last job 2 months before I was eligible for SS.
We all try writing to our folks in Congress...and I know that, for the most part, mine would like to help. But unless those who have elected these people to Congress let them know that they are destroying the country and going against what they were elected to do, there is no help for it.
Watching the bikini graph morph into something that reminds me of a slowing heart beat is very alarming.
As I read everybodys comments I have to wonder where the "average" American is? The Republicans keep talking as if they represent all of our citizens when by action they truly do represent a small minority, they just say it often enough and loud enough what they want to believe, and , sure enough, they believe it.
In all the refusal to extend the unemployment benefit, and the yapping about eliminating Social Security, I never hear a commentator remind the listening audience that the money in these funds came out of the working persons paycheck! AND, in all of the extensive cut-the-budget suggestions, I have yet to hear anyone say WE ARE PAYING THE CONGRESS TOO MUCH! And when are we going to demand a reduction in their pay and benefits. For $174,000 plus the benefits they get, every member of the House and Senate should be in Washington DC 300 days a year AT WORK or their pay should be cut reflecting how much they actually are on the job, that is the way it works in business!
Your comments hit the nail squarely on the head! There ought to be a diffferent way for We The People (the very ones the Republicans keep saying they represent) to fire each Congressperson who fails to represent us and do the job we sent them to Washington to do. Voting is no longer working, possibly because so many disillusioned people refuse to get out and vote. Cut their pay to what we make on the average, and see if they can live the way we do!
I'd also recommend that they get docked a share of their salary for every time they fail to vote on an issue - either by not being there or by refusing to cast a vote. If you refuse to be counted, you should not be paid for work you haven't actually done.
My husband has been out of work for about 20 months now and his benefits run out next week. We are lucky in that I have a good paying job with health insurance, and for that I am very thankful. However, because my husband had worked retail for 15 years and decided going back to school would better help us avoid this type of situation in the furture, no one wants to hire him. He is overqualified for part-time retail jobs, and underqualified for anything other than retail management, he hasn't been able to find any sort of job through all of this. He even applied with a temp agency and never received one call from telling him they has work for him...because there are no jobs! At this point I hope the Dems stand firm and don't give in on the tax cuts for the rich, even if that means no more extensions on unemployment benefits. It's time for them to take a real stand against the Repulicans and stop them from bullying them into anything and everything they want!!!
Not to be a tool (this isn't related) but when are you guys going to do a segment on the Smithsonian caving into John Boehner and Eric Cantor to censor the gay-themed Hide/Seek show? No one cares about art?
More here: https://rehistoric.wordpress.com/
People of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage.- J. K. Galbraith
From a conservative point of view, cotton needs a pickin, burgers need a flippen, beds need a turnin, pools need a cleanin, golf courses need a mowin, and unions need a crushin.
AND your mouth needs a'shuttin
All of which can be done by undocumented immigrants for far cheaper than you would have to pay high school much less college graduates. And if you they get too uppity, you just have them deported. That's the American way. Brilliant.
You mean the same 'Unions' that handed you your overtime after 40 hr work week, your minimum wage, time and a half on holidays?
Can you be that naieve to believe that companies just gave you those benefits out of the goodness of their hearts? All the working pay standards we have today, even the non-union jobs, were because of UNIONS so while your working OT to pay for juniors college fund remember that. Or not, and just remaine ignorant like you neocons do best.
Yeah, unions are so awful in Germany that union representatives sit on the boards of corporations and Germany has the second-largest export economy in the world. That's second to China. How awful!
Let's get real. America is turning into a 3rd world country and tax breaks for the wealthiest are accelerating the process. We'll need to sneak across the border to Canada for middle class jobs and health care, or try to row across the Atlantic to Germany. Is there anything that makes better sense?
My dad is 59 and was laid off about a year ago. His unemployment benefits ran out a few months ago, and now their whole family (of 3) is uninsured, and struggling to get by on mom's salary from her job as a cashier (which she originally took on to pay for my brother's college tuition, but now it's become full time and permanent, and still under $8/hr). Thankfully they've been in their house 30 years, and paid off their mortgage in July. Still, the idea of waiting for 6 more years until Dad can get on Medicare is not a plausible solution. It's been a challenge to find new employment for my Dad -- a recent study has shown that the longer one is unemployed, the harder it is to find new employment. The family isn't eligible for Medicaid, mostly because the state (AZ) raised the eligibility threshold, and my parents have "too much money" in their IRA / savings to get on Food Stamps or other aid programs, even though they know that savings wouldn't last even 6 months if they were to withdraw it now. My brother graduated with a BS in Computer Science in May. He still hasn't found any work. Several fast food restaurants told him he was "overqualified" and wouldn't hire him.
I can't imagine that my family's problems are unusual; in fact, I fear they're far too common right now. This is a crisis, and it's time our lawmakers realize that they were elected to represent their constituents, ALL of their constituents, and not just the richest 2%.
The privileged powers that be are morphing our democracy into a theocratic oligarchy supported by indentured servants (formerly known as the middle class).
As a nation we need to admit that full employment is probably not going to be seen anytime in the near future. Most of those jobs are gone forever, stick a fork in them, their done!
So to fix our economic problems we need to find another way to keep money flowing. That solution is pay; I'm older (50) but I remember a day when a person working A (1) full time job could support themselves on that income. Life wasn't great but it could be done. Today a person living alone could not support themselves on only one job even if it was full time. They need assistance from a roommate, food stamps or some other means of bring in the needed finances to make ends meet. We are at a crossroads of sorts, if minimum wage is not increased significantly , we may never again see economic growth.
This is sad news for anyone, because an overall negative trend for 3 straight years means a lot more people losing their minds due to fears of losing everything. This puts the government and the corporations to shame; it's really a failure of capitalism, because corporations are posting huge profits and paying huge amounts to their CEOs, while the job market & the economy are in a dismal shape.
I wonder how long the country can sustain this, without having voters lose their minds big time?
This is the nature of Capitalism; 'Capital flows to where labor is cheapest' (Marx). The tables got turned is all.
http://www.truththeory.org/california-dreaming/
'Hope is last to die.' Russian Proverb
If the Dems had any guts, they would say, "OK, cons, you have claimed for 30 years that tax cuts creates jobs. Time to prove it. We will extend the tax cuts on millionaires and billionaires for two years, and if unemployment doesn't hit 5% or less, their tax rates automatically rise to 50%+"
Why should the rich be responsible for the less wealthy americans. Why punish them for prospering. Makes no sense. Keep the rich rich, maybe they can be the poor's role model.
This is so sensible that it has zero probability of occurrence!
If the rich wealthy taxes go up 3 % they will still be wealthy. It could be in their best interest to keep the deficit down and put money where it will stimulate the economy like unemployment insurance.
We can't all be millionaires, somebody has to do the dirty work. Those that do so honorably should be given a fair shake and at least have the minimum required to live a healthy life and raise a family.
They are given a fair shake. They could have been a millionaire also if they took the same steps as the millionaire did growing up. Are actions have consequences good and bad, people must live with those choices.
Sure, they could have taken the same steps as the millionaire did growing up...like being born into a wealthy family.
Must be that you must have made some pretty poor choices, as I find it highly doubtful that you are a millionaire.
In case you noticed, very few jobs pay well enough to make one a millionaire, but they are vital none the less. We need policemen, firemen, teachers, nurses, construction workers, to name a few, but none of them will ever be millionaires. Either we start paying them better, or we simply encourage our citizens to avoid those "menial" jobs in favor of everyone going to work on Wall Street or as CEOs. I'm guessing our country would last less than a week if we did so.
No no no no. Policeman, fireman, teachers, postmen...those are all the public sector jobs filled by gov't fatcats who get driven around in limos and eat caviar three times a day, and those are the ones we have to get rid of if we want to get our deficit under control. I understand that if we privatize the police force, Blackwater/Xe will give us a terrific break on the price if we don't mind our children giving them $1.00 hummers like they were getting in Iraq as a bonus.
Yep, we're boned.
If the Republicans keep calling the shots on matters related to the economy, and setting the terms of all debates generally, then I would expect a return of the Hoovervilles. Regrettably, the new incarnations would probably be named after President Obama; but my preference would be for calling them Boehnerburgs (and mispronouncing the 'boehner' part, natch).
Business lays off people by the millions, they make the largest profits on record in the US and most pay no taxes, including GE, Exxon and Bank of America while still complaining while 2 million of their unemployed people are going to be put on the street while banks are committing criminal fraud that the Fed wants to fix for them and Obama apologizes! I am sorry, President Obama is one blade shy of a sharp edge. He is as bad as Bush flying over Katrina! If Obama is so smart, why can't he keep his own campaign promises before giving them away behind our backs to Republicans BEFORE they even ask! That is not smart and that is no way to deal with the party of NO!
I am also very disappointed in President Obama. I am beginning to believe the whole game is rigged. After all of the gifts he has given the Republicans for no reason I think the old line, "somebody got to him", may apply or he just isn't the Democrat we thought he was, more like a blue dog Dino. I am very disturbed at writing something like this, but I know somebody killed Kennedy...
Wha... you mean the economy, the foreclosures, the financial crises, the unemployed—is all just happenstance? : ) I think not.
If our political system were sane...
ha ha ha, thanks, I needed a good laugh!