Posted on 08/03/2013 6:07:24 PM PDT by foundedonpurpose
Who's on the Job?
COSTELLO: I want to talk about the unemployment rate in America.
ABBOTT: Good Subject. Terrible Times. It's 7.8%.
COSTELLO: That many people are out of work?
ABBOTT: No, that's 14.7%.
COSTELLO: You just said 7.8%.
ABBOTT: 7.8% unemployed.
COSTELLO: Right; 7.8% out of work.
ABBOTT: No, that's 14.7%.
COSTELLO: Okay, so it's 14.7% unemployed.
ABBOTT: No, that's 7.8%.
COSTELLO: Wait a minute. Is it 7.8% or 14.7%?
ABBOTT: 7.8% are unemployed. 14.7% are out of work.
COSTELLO: If you are out of work, you are unemployed.
ABBOTT: No, Congress said you can't count the "Out of Work" as unemployed. You have to look for work to be unemployed.
COSTELLO: But they are out of work!!!
ABBOTT: No, you miss his point.
COSTELLO: What point?
ABBOTT: Someone who doesn't look for work can't be counted with those who look for work. It wouldn't be fair.
COSTELLO: To whom?
ABBOTT: The unemployed.
COSTELLO: But all of them are out of work.
ABBOTT: No, the unemployed are actively looking for work. Those who are out of work gave up looking, and if you give up, you are no longer in the ranks of the unemployed.
COSTELLO: So if you're off the unemployment rolls, that would count as less unemployment?
ABBOTT: Unemployment would go down. Absolutely!
COSTELLO: The unemployment just goes down because you don't look for work?
ABBOTT: Absolutely it goes down. That's how it gets to 7.8%. Otherwise it would be 14.7%.
COSTELLO: Wait, I got a question for you. That means there are two ways to bring down the unemployment number?
ABBOTT: Two ways is correct.
COSTELLO: Unemployment can go down if someone gets a job?
ABBOTT: Correct.
COSTELLO: And unemployment can also go down if you stop looking for a job?
ABBOTT: Bingo.
COSTELLO: So there are two ways to bring unemployment down, and the easier of the two is to have people stop looking for work.
ABBOTT: Now you're thinking like an economist.
COSTELLO: I don't even know what the hell I just said!
ABBOTT: Now you're thinking like Congress.
Hu’s on first ?
Naturally........
lol
Thank you. That was funny!!!
The lie about the unemployment rate is that you can exhaust your unemployment benefits and when you exhaust your unemployment benefits you stop reporting that you are unemployed. You haven’t “stopped looking”, you just can’t get paid anymore not to have a job so you stop reporting to the government that you are looking for work. So the 7.8% (now down to 7.4% because of summer jobs) isn’t even the percent looking for work. It’s the percent who are out of work and still filing for unemployment benefits.
When the economy “recovered”, certain states could no longer offer the federal unemployment extensions so those people were dropped.
Now, some of these people are “chronically unemployed” because they are just people no employer would want (addicts, sex offenders, folks with AIDS, etc) but some are people I have met that can’t move elsewhere and there just aren’t any workable jobs for them. They’ve exhausted their benefits and they are probably living with somebody else who earns money until they can get back on their feet.
They don’t count on the 7.8% because they’ve euphemistically “given up looking”.
It’s a real shame that so few people even know who those two men are anymore.
“They don’t count on the 7.8% because they’ve euphemistically “given up looking”.”
I know, go to shadow stats (http://www.shadowstats.com/) and get a much more realistic perspective on what is going on. I think it’s worse, as many people are losing their full time status and are being made part time due to the glorious exalted god of the state and his genius health care curse, which the employed special statists do not have to participate in.
Somebody needs to make this into a video pronto!
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