Posted on 02/16/2006 11:38:31 AM PST by Willie Green
(I,ve NEVER read that book.)
Actually, this fact reflects the slow -- but steady -- change in the nature of our Federal tax structure, as Federal revenes from our progressive income taxes decline and revenues from our regressive payroll taxes increase. At the rate we're going, we'll have a "flat tax" system in place in about 25 years.
The best part about it is that nobody will even realize it.
National Unemployment < 5%
Dow Jones > 11,000
National Inflation = 4%
Federal January Surplus of $20 billion
Things seem to be looking up.
"There has also been a lost of 209,000 private-sector white-collar supervisory positions in line with the loss of blue collar workers. These well-paying jobs have been replaced by lower-paying service sector jobs in health care, social work, education, and restaurants. Unemployment is low because people have to work to eat, so they take whatever jobs are available. Even so, since Labor Dept. stats do not count people who have been out of work for more than six months, the kind of unemployment that affects how people and families actually live is still high."
Sheer nonsense. If you look at the composition of the most recent jobs report for January, you will see that more than half the jobs created are in high paying sectors. More than 50% job creation in these areas indicates substantive job growth, not burger flipper jobs. The report also confirms that America is creating more than 30,000 new jobs, mostly in new-age industries, every week. Real wages are higher now than at the peak of the 1990s boom. This is no burger-flipper economy.
Further, the assumption that all service sector jobs are low paying is a leftist/liberal conceit with no bearing in economic reality. Service sector jobs are more than just beauticians and "social workers," but include attornies and finacial service professionals which are high paying jobs, as are the health care professional the dope who wrote this article thinks make minimum wage.
Also, this conceit of "there are a lot of people who have given up looking for jobs" is pure crap. That number is said by labor experts to be only another 1 percentage point over the official unemployment rate which is a static number in ANY economy no matter how good.
Most people who need jobs simply cannot afford to give up looking. I was unemployed for 2 yrs. during the "Clinton" boom and never gave up. I couldn't afford to. Most who do are second income earners. But to claim the number of those is "high" is simply not supported by the facts.
Finally, while anecdotal data is never that helpful, look around you? Do any of you really know anyone chronically unemployed who hasn't chosen to be? I don't know anyone other than a terminally ill friend who's unemployed. Again, I know that doesn't mean much but one can often measure the strength of the economy merely by seeing what's going on around them. From what I see, people are doing well. The stores are always packed with shoppers. New cars are all over the roads, etc.
Finally, what of the new fed. chair, and the old one, all speaking in glowing terms of the economy as well as most economists? Are they ALL missing something the leftist clown who wrote this article is the only one tuned in to? I doubt it.
What this article is is nothing more than a partisan hit piece meant to talk down the economy in time for the November mid-terms. Dems. know the strong economy will be a hinderance to them come November. This loser who wrote this braindead article is just part of the effort by Dems. to lie their way back into Congressional control.
Would you have a link to that thread? I'd love to read it.
It was the one on Pat Buchanan's article titled "America's Hollow Prosperity" -- and had 400+ replies on it by last night. If you do a search for it here on FR and can't find it, let me know . . . and I'll try to get a direct link to it.
"There has also been a lost of 209,000 private-sector white-collar supervisory positions in line with the loss of blue collar workers."
And by the way, many times that number of supervisory jobs have been created since 2003 more than erasing the 209,000 supervisory loss during the recent slow down. The guy who wrote this fails to mention that his number is a historical one, not an ongoing one, and is cancelled out by supervisory positions CREATED. We're just not all that stupid sir.
Also, an add-on comment to something else I said. Even accounting for the 1 percentage point of people who have exhausted unemployment benefits or given up looking, the unemployment rate is still quite low at 5.7% if you want to add in the 1 percentage point. Besides, that one percentage point is mitigated at least in part by the number of people who collect unemployment but were fired for cause. Many employers agree to allow an employee let go for cause to collect unemployment. I've seen this numerous times INCLUDING a woman I use to work with who was fired for stealing thousands of dollars by misusing a company credit card. Those people are on unemployment not out of economic displacement, but because of an over-indulgent employer.
Oh thanks. I was one of those who replied, so I can find the link in my past comments. Thanks for your willingness to help however!
Most people I know are doing well. Credit card and personal finance companies are doing well too. Americans are in debt up to their eyeballs. Personal savings are at an all time low. Americans do have a lot of equity built up in their homes and that's good. Hopefully the housing market won't take a dive anytime soon. All in all, its definitely hasn't been an easy transformation from a mostly industrialized nation to a computer, information, entertainment based society. Pop culture rules. Google, Yahoo and MS are the big stuff today. GMC, Ford and Chrysler are history.
"All in all, its definitely hasn't been an easy transformation from a mostly industrialized nation to a computer, information, entertainment based society. Pop culture rules. Google, Yahoo and MS are the big stuff today. GMC, Ford and Chrysler are history."
True. But notice the economy has successfully transitioned from a manufacturing economy to a service and tech sector economy. Despite these seismic economic shifts, the economy has continued to thrive interrupted only by 2 short and shallow recessions in the last 2 decades. High debt and low savings rates haven't seemed to mitigate that much. Like you say, some of the saving grace are people benefitting from home equity.
DUMB ASS!
LLS
Well in his book, PJB focuses more on the socio-cultural issues rather than economics.
But yes, I'd say that, overall, this article compliments and is compatible with PJB's positions.
wage growth was 3.1% last year. take government workers out of the pool, who get contracted salary increases, and remove the top 2% of all private wage earners - and you'll find private sector middle class wages are decreasing. and we all know what is happening to private pensions and medical benefit co-pays (for everyone not in government employment).
Some of your comments here did look familiar -- I probably read your replies on the other thread, too. LOL.
Ditto..what you said. According to these geniuses Bush can't win. I can imagine that these are the kind of pessimists who if the Dow hits twelve thousand sometime this year, they'll say that it should have hit fifteen thousand. People "reject" the Bush economic policies because they're told it's awful by Big Media...who lie through their teeth.
Well here's the link for you,
but I didn't see where anybody refuted any of the facts that Pat presented.
Mostly the same silly gaggle of naysayers squawking because Pat Buchanan wrote the article.
They always chant the same mantra, no matter what the topic is.
LOL, what's sad is I don't even remember what I wrote now!
Not to mention, all these polls have over-polled Democratic respondents relative to the actual voting population. Further dissatisfaction can also be explained by the "nothing but negative" news coverage of the MSM.
The more important measure is consumer sentiment which was measured being quite high recently. From the report on the Consumer Confidence Index:
"The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index, which had increased in December, improved further in January. The Index now stands at 106.3 (1985=100), up from 103.8 in December. The Present Situation Index rose to 128.4 from 120.7. The Expectations Index declined to 91.5 from 92.6 last month.
The Consumer Confidence Survey is based on a representative sample of 5,000 U.S. households. The monthly survey is conducted for The Conference Board by TNS. TNS is the world's largest custom research company. The cutoff date for January's preliminary results was January 24th.
"Consumer Confidence is now at its highest level in more than three years (June 2002, 106.3)," says Lynn Franco, Director of The Conference Board Consumer Research Center. "This month's increase was driven solely by consumers' assessment of current economic conditions, especially their more positive view of the job market."
These numbers are totally out of line with right direction/wrong track polling numbers and the polling data cited in this hackneyed article, as well as the very strong December and January retail sales reports, both of which were strong.
Let's assume that your God PJB's comments are 100% correct. How is turning our country into a Jew-hating socialist worker's paradise going to make it a stronger or better country? Don't you know that even the great USSR couldn't long ignore the brutal competition of a market economy? Get out of the past, the 50's are gone and will never return no matter how much PJB wishes it to be.
"There was bad news for the White House and the Republican Party in the Associated Press-Ipsos poll on public attitudes conducted Feb. 6-8. By a 61-35 percent margin, respondents said that the country was on the "wrong track," and by 57-40 percent disapproved of the way President George W. Bush is running the country."
These polls if you check their internal numbers have over-polled Democratic respondents relative to the actual voting population. Other contributors to these dissatisfaction numbers can also be explained by the "nothing but negative" news coverage of the MSM that colors peoples' opinions. None of this is reflective of economic reality.
The more important measure is consumer sentiment which was measured being quite high recently. THAT measure is much more reflective of economic reality than skewed media polls. From the recent report on the Consumer Confidence Index:
"The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index, which had increased in December, improved further in January. The Index now stands at 106.3 (1985=100), up from 103.8 in December. The Present Situation Index rose to 128.4 from 120.7. The Expectations Index declined to 91.5 from 92.6 last month.
The Consumer Confidence Survey is based on a representative sample of 5,000 U.S. households. The monthly survey is conducted for The Conference Board by TNS. TNS is the world's largest custom research company. The cutoff date for January's preliminary results was January 24th.
"Consumer Confidence is now at its highest level in more than three years (June 2002, 106.3)," says Lynn Franco, Director of The Conference Board Consumer Research Center. "This month's increase was driven solely by consumers' assessment of current economic conditions, especially their more positive view of the job market."
These numbers are totally out of line with right direction/wrong track polling numbers and the polling data cited in this hackneyed article, as well as the very strong December and January retail sales reports, both of which were strong.
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