Posted on 07/08/2014 4:20:59 AM PDT by markomalley
When everyone checks out of the labor market the unemployment rate goes down. It’s not unlike the management of “medical populations” we reported on over the weekend. If enough sick people die the overall population becomes healthier.
The truth is many people are scraping by. People are going into debt to buy food. Those who don’t have access to credit at all are often on food stamps, roughly 46 million Americans. Millions of people have pursued disability benefits as a way to make ends meet. Overall wages have been declining in a serious way since 2008 when adjusted for inflation. The average American household brings in 7% less in real terms than it did 6 years ago. Many recent college graduates still can’t find jobs. Those who do are often underemployed. A good number of these former students are also carrying tens of thousands in student debt.
But the stock market is going up. So everything is cool right?
Wrong. Big time wrong.
The markets are a valve for the easy money produced by the Federal Reserve. The perception is that even if all hell were to break loose the Fed wouldn’t let the stock market crash completely (assuming it still has the power to stop a crash). So those who have access to the easy money put their money in equities. It’s a way better bet than putting money into capital equipment for example – which would create real jobs – but which is much more exposed to any economic downturn.
No, much better screw around in the markets. Let the government (funded by taxpayers) throw some crumbs to the peasants and keep all that easy money where it can be protected, the stock market.
The truth is the people who run the show don’t really care about jobs so long as the malcontents can be salved with the welfare state. They, both Republicans and Democrats, just want to see their portfolios expand.
(From Real Clear Markets)
The data suggest a permanent rise in the number of Americans who expect to be supported by either family members or the government. Policy makers probably should put more effort into determining how the nation can afford all these millions of new non-workers. Entitlement reform and personal financial responsibility appear to be high priorities if our future is to be secured.
If you want a simple, clear explanation of why so many people seem to be struggling financially even if they have jobs, these numbers provide a pretty good answer. Each worker has to support more people than they used to: through taxes to fund welfare and entitlement programs or in their families where perhaps only one spouse is working, unemployed grown children have returned home, or elderly parents need financial support.
--but it's in the BLS numbers...
Connecticut ain't big enough to have a southern part. ;-)
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