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Are you surprised by rising unemployment numbers? Do you still see “Now Hiring” signs in windows of businesses?? Doesn’t make sense does it? Or does it?
The first reason that I think this makes total sense is that jobs are a “trailing number”. The term trailing number is pretty simple it means that the job numbers won’t react until after the economy reacts. So, when the economy is booming and starts to slow, jobs will remain solid for a while then will start to fall. The opposite is also true. When the economy rebounds, the jobs won’t rebound for a period of time after the economy starts. It’s for a very simple reason, businesses have to get busier before hiring people.
The second reason why we shouldn’t be surprised by increasing unemployment rates is because the politicians in Washington increased the length of unemployment benefits. This really has two impacts:
- People can be counted for a longer period of time in the numbers
- People can survive longer on unemployment
By extending unemployment, people can stay on the numbers longer. When it used to be a shorter duration, people stayed on for that period of time and then once it was done (whether they found a job or not) they were removed from the numbers. Now that it has been extended the people stay on the rolls longer while they look for a new job.
Also if people CAN stay on them longer it gives them the ability to hold out longer. Before you get mad about that statement read on… As an example, if you were making $30 an hour and unemployment is now providing you 60% or the equivalent of $18/hour are you going to take a $10 job to be “employed”. No. But when unemployment stops and you are making $0/hour the $10/hour job starts to look much more appealing. Even though it’s not your ideal job or salary, it is better than $0.
So, the numbers that we use in the U.S. for unemployment don’t actually represent the people who are out of work. They represent the number of people who take unemployment benefits. So by altering the unemployment benefits you alter the numbers.
Obama apparently thought it would be a good idea to alienate Rush and his listeners. Rush had a fantastic response to the comment:
This is not just targeted at Rush, it is targeted at all conservative voices. Rush is the big dog so he is the obvious target. In the coming years you will see continued criticism of conservative voices (because they oppose the Messiah). Then you will see them try to take it all a step further with the un-constitutional return of the Fairness Doctrine. Politicians are all for free speech when it agrees with them. The citizens have to fight back and say whether we agree or not we HAVE the right to debate!
Quite a few people have gone through the political quiz that I talked about in the the post called Political Spectrum. I want to know what you thought. Did it fit your political views? Do you know of a better quiz?
Post some comments on your thoughts of the quiz!
As I am getting this blog rolling, I am adding more and more content. I have spent a little time to outline some of my basic principles that I believe are important. They are on the Principles page.
Please give me your opinions/applause/arguments whatever!
Well good ole Harry has decided he doesn’t really care much for the law. It is just interfering in his grand plan. So, screw the law! He’s going to say forget what Minnesota thinks… we’re seating Franken.
Senate Democrats move toward seating Franken
Unbelievable. I am so sick of this style of politics. Let’s do something crazy and obey the damn law!
A friend named Bob McNeal asked something in a comment on previous post that I thought needed an article of it’s own. He asked the following question:
“Is there such a thing as a Liberal Libertarian?”
I would answer whole-heartedly yes. I tend to side with many in thinking that the spectrum isn’t as simple as left and right. This is because you can believe conservative view points or liberal viewpoints and still not completely believe in authoritarian government. I personally like this image better than the traditional spectrum.
I personally think that this better fits the true realm of political viewpoint in this country. If you are interested I believe that the World’s Smallest Political Quiz uses this model.
