The Bush Economy: Low Wages, Low Standards
The Bush Economy: Low Wages, Low Standards
While we all hope that the economy will strengthen, the White House’s
A more candid assessment of the December jobs and earnings report – and the full 2005 job record – would recognize the following 3 points.
1. The Unemployment Rate Would Be 6.6% if As Many People Were Looking for Work Today as Were When President Bush Took Office.
There are two reasons that unemployment rate can drop: one, because job growth is strong, or two, because fewer people are looking for work. Unfortunately, the entire story of the unemployment rate’s drop to 4.9% has been Americans falling out of the labor market.
In January 2001, 67.2% of Americans were working or looking for work. If that number had held, there would be an additional 2.7 million people looking for work and the unemployment rate would be 6.6%–1.7% above its official mark.
We saw this effect in December, where the unemployment rate dropped thanks largely to the labor force shrinking by 30,000 workers.
2. Both Average Real Weekly and Average Real Hourly Wages were Down in 2005 – and Indeed are Down for the 4 years Since the End of the Recession.
For the second year in a row, both real weekly and real hourly wages fell in 2005. As of December 2005, both were lower than they were when the recession ended in November 2001.
• For 2005, average real weekly wages fell 0.4% from $$552.75 in December 2004 to $550.60 in December 2005. Since the end of the recession, they are also down 0.4% from $552.58 in November 2001.
• For 2005, average real hourly wages fell 0.4% from $16.40 in December 2004 to $16.34 in December 2005. Since the end of the recession, they have been effectively stagnant, dropping one cent from $16.35 in November 2001.
3. The Rate of Job Growth for the Fourth Year of a Recovery is the Weakest it has Been Since the 1930s.
• The rate of job growth during 2005 – about the fourth year of the recovery – was the weakest of any comparable period since the 1930s. In 2005 (months 38-49 of the current recovery), total employment grew just 1.5%. In months 38 through 49 of recoveries this length since the 1930s, employment growth averaged more than twice that rate: 3.1%. While the economy added 2.0 million jobs – in some cases a sound year – it represented a weak rate, as mentioned above, for a fourth year of a recovery. Indeed, since the economy had net job loss for 2002 and 2003 combined, the labor market needed more robust job growth to make up for this unusual period of job loss. The job growth in 2005 is therefore, particularly unimpressive in the context of such a weak first two years of job performance in this recovery.
• The Job Growth Since the 2003 Tax Cut is Also the Weakest for this Stage of the Recovery Since the 1930s. The White House continues to boast about job growth since its last tax cuts. In a speech early last month, Bush argued that cutting taxes on dividends and capital gains encouraged “job creating investment†that helped the economy add “four and a half million new jobs.†This morning the White House used the same mark to herald the 4.6 million jobs created since May 2003. Yet, a real look beyond the talking points shows that this is really nothing to brag about. The 4.6 million jobs during this 31 month period represents only 150,000 jobs a month – or 3.6% rate. That is half the average rate of job growth for similar periods in recoveries since the 1930s—the worst ratefor such periods on record.
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Let me guess, the “spin” that we’re going to hear from the neo-con trolls will be something like “This is all lies!” or “Why can’t you see the positive and only harp on the negative?”
Let the spinning begin. . . . . .
January 6th, 2006 at 4:15 pmDS,
You forgot:
“This is Clinton’s fault.”
January 6th, 2006 at 4:17 pmThank you for pointing this out. I’ve long believed that thousands just drop off the unemployment rolls, giving a false impression that things are rosy. I’ve also wondered how many ‘new jobs’ that are created are actually 2nd or even 3rd jobs for people who can’t make it on their current salary.
January 6th, 2006 at 4:18 pmWell, #1, that is all they have; no substance, just smoke and mirrors and, of course, lots and lots of smearing. How anyone could defend these rampant tax cuts for the wealthy, baffles me. It just isn’t logical.
January 6th, 2006 at 4:20 pmWell, to the administration’s credit, the economy has been good to CEOs across America as their salaries have skyrocketed in comparison to that of their minimum wage workers and that’s all that matters to Bush and his cronies.
Who needs higher salaries, health care, or better education from the govnerment when you can just as easily have them fend off the evil gays and non-believers and protect you from those dark Arabs who don’t even have the means to hurt you.
January 6th, 2006 at 4:23 pmThe economy is doing just great, trust us. Remember, everything changed 9/11. You’re either with us or you are a terrorist. Support the war or you are a traitor. The president has unlimited power to grant himself unlimited powers. Spying on americans without warrants is not illegal if the americans that we’re spying on could be a terrorist (see point above).
January 6th, 2006 at 4:24 pmOh, and did I mention 9/11?
January 6th, 2006 at 4:25 pm#2, How could I forget!
Of course, because Pres. Clinton lied about having sex, it must be HIS fault for everything! He caused Spet. 11th, he caused the war in Iraq, he caused the recession, he caused Katrina, and he even caused the Sago mine incident! Therefore, he must be responsible for everything bad that happened under Pres. “W” Bush!
Once the Oxycontin wears off, I’m sure I’ll feel better. Until then: “I’m a Ditto-head and I’m not allowed to think for myself!”
January 6th, 2006 at 4:27 pmCount me as one of the many who’s been unemployed for three years and is a vapor when it comes to unemployment numbers. I used to make in the low six-figures and I can’t even get a $10/hr job now.
January 6th, 2006 at 4:27 pm6&7- You forgot Poland, and 9-11.
1- Why do the facts have such an irrational hatred of GWB?
January 6th, 2006 at 4:29 pmA good friend took a sales job in New York on strick commission because it took her six months to find any job at all. She used to work for me so I know she is a very capable and hard-working. She was 42 and overweight, and was routinely told after four interviews, that her age and weight were the reason she wasn’t being hired and the skinny breast augmentation was.
I had to help a different friend argue for a pay raise because he was being paid well below the market value of his experience level as an architect and the company hadn’t given him one in almost two years (while they were bragging about profits).
Another friend accepted the position of doing two jobs for the price of one in the computer industry three months after his unemployment benefits expired (and he has like 6 college degrees on the subject).
And it goes on. I can’t imagine what it’s like for people without much experience, skills and degrees. Yet we keep hearing about the jobs that Americnas won’t do. Could that really mean the jobs that Americans aren’t willing to do for $5.15 an hour 12 hours per day without potty breaks?
January 6th, 2006 at 4:29 pmI’m looking for work. Anyone got a job? Impeach the bastards.
January 6th, 2006 at 4:32 pm#9 I myself have discovered that 51-year-old Creative Directors aren’t much in demand. There’s a lot of this going around.
January 6th, 2006 at 4:33 pm“For 2005, average real weekly wages fell, at least 0.7% from $554.47 in to $550.66”
I can’t seem to figure out the linked table. I can find $550.66 (Dec 2005p). What I can’t find is the comparison number of $554.47. Indeed, it appears from the table that in Dec 2004 average real weekly wages were 534.15. Doesn’t this mean that for the year wages were up? What am I missing?
January 6th, 2006 at 4:33 pmWell, to the administration’s credit, the economy has been good to CEOs across America as their salaries have skyrocketed in comparison to that of their minimum wage workers and that’s all that matters to Bush and his cronies.
Comment by Fight the Power — January 6, 2006 @ 4:23 pm
I saw numbers that said that while executives salaries were once 15 times the rate of their typical employee, that it is currently up to 42 times. Incredible, huh? And these are undoubtedly the same “good Christians” who are in here slamming us for legalizing abortion…
January 6th, 2006 at 4:33 pmHey look — you can see the BushCo economic benefits to his rich pals just a-tricklin’ down on all of us!!
But why is that giant elephant up there lifting his leg?
January 6th, 2006 at 4:37 pmIf the economy was doing as well as the Bush admin declares in its PR campaign, it wouldn’t need a PR campaign. Citizens care about the economy on Main St, not Wall St. Yet even by Wall St. standards, the Dow Jones, which grew by ~140% under Reagan and ~187% under Clinton, has been almost stagnant under Bush.
January 6th, 2006 at 4:37 pmre: #11 – - She was 42 and overweight, and was routinely told after four interviews, that her age and weight were the reason she wasn’t being hired>
January 6th, 2006 at 4:47 pmIf that’s true, then your friend could have sued those companies and easily won. Any half-lucid HR person would NEVER say those things.
The market should cook this year as it is an off-year election year with the Republicans in deep doodoo. Computer trading is usually tweaked to allow the market to rise during like periods, but don’t hold on to any volatile stocks beyond October.
January 6th, 2006 at 4:50 pmInteresting statistics here: “Prosperity in the George Bush’s Economy”
http://www.alternet.org/story/30447/
January 6th, 2006 at 5:07 pmYawn…. wake me when you return to reality.
Hopefully, the economy will hold up until after 2008. At least if a Democrat is elected we can watch liberals defend 6+ unemployment and a real recession.
Trashing an economy with less than 5% unemployment shows you just how out of touch the left is.
January 6th, 2006 at 5:09 pmI have Loads of friends that will under no circumstances at the moment by American and will not do even when bush has gone till you change foreign policy ……Its the root of all evil today
January 6th, 2006 at 5:11 pmI have Loads of friends that will under no circumstances at the moment bye American and will not do even when bush has gone till you change foreign policy ……Its the root of all evil today
January 6th, 2006 at 5:12 pmThe GDP growth appears solid in large part because of deficit spending,just as a good Keynesian would predict.The stock market has been stagnant,but I found the discussion of social security in the speech most interesting. I’ll have to take another look at the projections in the 3/05 trustee report but the upper band (the “optimistic case”) had forecast GDP growth at roughly the current rate. Wouldn’t that mean that GDP growth combined with jobs growth (increased payroll) pushes any potential funding problem beyond the horizon forecast in the base case? So instead of 2017 being the beginning of redemptions of the IOUs in the trust fund,the start date would be some 8-10 years later. That would also push the date at which the redemptions plus current taxes woulod no longer cover current outlays to around 2059 or (surprise)the 75 year fix that was put in place in 1982.
January 6th, 2006 at 5:14 pmIt doesn’t seem that the GDP growth will be connected in any way to the SS fund issue,but GWB can certainly stay on point!
So Basically America is stuffed South American hates you …you cannot use American Express in Germany anymore ..even to buy world cup tickets online …THE WORLD IS BOYCOTTING YOUR GOODS MAN
January 6th, 2006 at 5:14 pm#25 – on this site, you are hero. In most circles in America, you’re scum.
January 6th, 2006 at 5:15 pmLook at all the spin were getting from guys wearing rose coloured spectacles and charging Bush money for intercepting this Blog …Trolls everywhere
January 6th, 2006 at 5:15 pm#25 – accuse the US of killing innocent women and children and the wackos on this site will really love you.
January 6th, 2006 at 5:16 pmre: #11 – - She was 42 and overweight, and was routinely told after four interviews, that her age and weight were the reason she wasn’t being hired>
If that’s true, then your friend could have sued those companies and easily won. Any half-lucid HR person would NEVER say those things.
Comment by OverTheHillAt50 — January 6, 2006 @ 4:47 pm
With what? She’d been unemployed with house and car payments. She was selling her furniture to make ends meet. PLus, she was looking for a job. And you do know how hard it is to win anything with a ‘my word against yours’ comment don’t you? The Bush Administration has made it very easy for people to get away with this.
A firm in Sacramento told a friend of mine that he would have a hard time climbing the corporate ladder because he wasn’t born in America (by a guy who was from Canada, ironically enough). My friend, worried about his visa status if he complained, did nothing. This kind of thing is not so easy to fight. I know, I was harrassed by a co-worker and it took three months of documentation and two appeals just to get one month’s worth of unemployment for quitting.
January 6th, 2006 at 5:17 pmTetracyline King,
Dude, you spew anymore hateful lies and your teeth are going to fall out. Don’t blame me, that’s what Pat Robertson said.
January 6th, 2006 at 5:18 pmReagan changed the way unemployment numbers were tracked so he could lie about the economy and make people feel good. It’s a horrible approach, unacceptably deceptive, and something that should be changed. People should be able to register or unregister as ‘would like to be employeed’, versus ’staying at home, and don’t want a job (assuming domestic partner role)’. These numbers would be far more useful at predicting and managing the health of the economy and the workforce.
The current system is just utterly lame and dishonest.
January 6th, 2006 at 5:18 pmexactly the same in the UK …The tories did things like you dont count the first 50.000 unemployed etc ..then Blair has the the clever unemployed on working tax credit ( 6 million ) then swindles the figures just like the USA and then Blairs says germany has 15% unemployed ….so would we in the UK if the Goverment did the Figures correct
January 6th, 2006 at 5:23 pmso long as you can perswade the public to think the economy is stable and growth is booming you can pull of an election win as Blair did in the UK
January 6th, 2006 at 5:24 pmThe flying scotsman must have dreams of playing Wimbledon.He shall not win.
January 6th, 2006 at 5:29 pmyes very funny but your missing my point. I would hate to end up on some redition flight ..
January 6th, 2006 at 5:37 pmGene Sperling is a Clinton administration economist who predicted gloom and doom from the passage of the Bush tax cuts. The economic track record since then shows he was wrong – dead wrong – so he is now trying to change the standard measures of economic growth and performance to justify further attacks on President Bush.
What Sperling and TP fail to admit, is that the economy under President Bush has performed extremely well despite overwhelmingly adverse economic conditions – including 9/11 and a recession that began under President Clinton. Mr. Sperling’s 20/20 hiindsight and his economic revisionism can’t change that, so he is trying to change good news into bad news for partisan political reasons.
This is just one more example of the fact that what’s good for America is usually bad for Democrats – and Democrats can’t be happy unless America is suffering from lots of bad news.
January 6th, 2006 at 5:43 pmBlue, the economy is performing the way you would expect any large economy to perform with deficit spending of this magnitude. The on-budget deficit in FY05 approached $500 billion. What else would you expect?
January 6th, 2006 at 5:49 pmIt sure isn’t Reagonomics. Although I must admit,I do enjoy the lower tax rates, I’ve cashed a few stocks I wouldn’t have otherwise.
This is smoke and mirrors by the admin. The average person who is employed has lost “real” income. The unemployed numbers are fewer because people are off the unemployment rolls after a year. We can look around and see our relatives, friends and neighbors who have lost jobs, whose jobs are threatened, who have to work 60 hours to make up the work for those who have been “let go,” who are working multiple part time jobs, or minimum wage jobs in order to keep the wolf from the door.
January 6th, 2006 at 5:49 pmThis is the new Bush campaign — the rosy economic picture. Put this in the column with “Iraqi oil will finance itw own reconstruction” or “we will be greeted with flowers” or “insurgents are in their last throes” or “who could have known that a plane would be deliberately flown into the WTC.” I won’t go on — the point is NOTHING he says is the truth. EVERYTHING he says is a perversion of fact.
President George W. Bush believes that the economy if fine because his CEO pals are making lots more money! Everyone else is off his radar screen and has no clue about them!If you are fabulously wealthy, then this New Year is wonderfull, but for the rest of us it borders on a Depression! Thanks alot George for the lousy Wal-Mart jobs!
January 6th, 2006 at 6:05 pmBubble boy was in Chicago this afternoon spewing his lies.
You should have seen the way he snuck out the side door of the Hilton. What a coward!
He couldn’t face the thousand or so protesters that chanted “Shame on you” when his motorcade busted a left at the corner, refusing to drive past the block long barracade that hung anti Bush signs.
Not to worry, even a perfectly positioned CTA Bus couldn’t drown our view of the criminal.
Of course we knew he wouldn’t use the front door and send a wave to his citizens.
We were positioned on Balboa and Michigan Ave. He knows that Chicago don’t like Bush.
I got my shot thru the camera lense of the Bubble boy. I got even more shots of real Americans who stood and shouted for hours telling Bush to step down.
I taped the voices of the citizens.
Will have Chicago Bush Protest pix up tommorow. Stay tuned.
January 6th, 2006 at 6:18 pm
China signals switch in reserves away from dollar
China indicated on Thursday it could begin to diversify its rapidly growing foreign exchange reserves away from the US dollar and government bonds – a potential shift with significant implications for global financial and commodity markets.
Economists estimate that more that 70 per cent of the reserves are invested in US dollar assets, which has helped to sustain the recent large US deficits. If China were to stop acquiring such a large proportion of dollars with its reserves – currently accumulating at about $15bn (€12.4bn) a month – it could put heavy downward pressure on the greenback.
Iran
The Iranians are about to commit an “offense” far greater than Saddam Hussein’s conversion to the euro of Iraq’s oil exports in the fall of 2000. Numerous articles have revealed Pentagon planning for operations against Iran as early as 2005. While the publicly stated reasons will be over Iran’s nuclear ambitions, there are unspoken macroeconomic drivers explaining the Real Reasons regarding the 2nd stage of petrodollar warfare – Iran’s upcoming euro-based oil Bourse
Rest of the world
U.S. Businesses Overseas Threatened by Rising Anti-Americanism
By Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON, D.C., Dec 29 (OneWorld) – The Bush administration’s foreign policy may be costing U.S. corporations business overseas–according to a new survey of 8,000 international consumers released this week by the Seattle-based Global Market Insite (GMI) Inc.
Brands closely identified with the U.S., such as Marlboro cigarettes, America Online (AOL), McDonald’s, American Airlines, and Exxon-Mobil are particularly at risk. GMI, an independent market research company, conducted the survey in eight countries December 10-12 with consumers over the internet.
January 6th, 2006 at 6:25 pmLooks like things are gonna get worse till you get rid of Bush
January 6th, 2006 at 6:26 pmSusan, I appreciate your first-hand report of today’s visit by bubble boy. I can’t wait to see the pix tomnorrow.
January 6th, 2006 at 6:27 pmglad you were able to be there!
Susan, off topic for a sec, here — did you hear that diebold machines have been purchased for Dupage county?
January 6th, 2006 at 6:27 pmLeast we forget, these people (Bushistas) create their own realities. Ron Suskind in his article in the New York Times Magazine quotes a senior White House Advisor:
Kinda sounds like we are living in the Matrix, doesn’t it?
January 6th, 2006 at 6:36 pmCan someone tell me how the number of people looking for employment is derived? Is it entirely from the unemployment offices?
January 6th, 2006 at 6:48 pmComment by Blue State Red — January 6, 2006 @ 5:43 pm
Mark it. 9/11? Check. Clinton did it? Check.
January 6th, 2006 at 6:55 pmgreat figures.. it would be great if you could also include the ever important UNDER-Employment. most people and especially most “journalists” fail to mention that. I went from salary, 401k, health, etc. to security guard making an average of $8/hr. and i don’t get overtime. There are 10s of thousands more in similar situations working at starbucks, or McD, that used to have good jobs.. when you ad the under-employed, those who quit looking [either giving up or early retirement] the numbers skyrocket and we are still at a loss. further, the new jobs being created are not replacing the ones that we lost in terms of pay/benefits or skill/education required.
January 6th, 2006 at 7:08 pmbut then again.. why bother investigating or seperating fact from lies/distortion/spin when it is so much easier just to read the copy the Admin gives you.
also.. reclassifying McDonalds fry cooks, and burger slingers as “manufacturing jobs”, doesn’t count either.
January 6th, 2006 at 7:11 pm#50 and #51, mm
January 6th, 2006 at 8:13 pmIt is stories like yours that prompted me to ask my question at #48.. how the number of people looking for employment is derived
Are the unemployed numbers fewer because people are off the unemployment rolls after a year. People work 60 hours to make up the work for those who have been “let go,†or work multiple part time jobs, or minimum wage jobs in order to keep the wolf from the door.
Flying Scotsman – I recently read an article talking about the devaluing US dollar. Here it is (took me awhile to find it!): Doomsday for the Greenback
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_mike_whi_051229_doomsday_for_the_gre.htm
The US will be caught by the short-hairs if/when this happens. Unfortunately, with the world economy, everyone will be affected. I guess the saying goes “ya ain’t seen nothin yet” applies here, huh?
January 6th, 2006 at 9:00 pmhttp://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=29437&SESSION=875
check above link Tony Blair will get impeached as soon as we get a few more votes
also work through the site and see theres stuff on Guantanomo to go though
January 6th, 2006 at 9:05 pmhttp://www.impeachblair.org/article26.shtml
or follow from this link
January 6th, 2006 at 9:07 pm56 Lisa ….thanks for that info it was nice to read
Thanks again
January 6th, 2006 at 9:13 pmGood luck with your impeachment of Blair; maybe it will ignite this country to follow suit. Your welcome on the article. It’s good to share perspectives, especially when great minds are thinking alike!
Sort of liked the Blair bloke, though. He seemed to be a likeable guy that was severely duped by Bush. Maybe it’s that elite generation that believes loyalty before reality/integrity. Let us pray they’re the exception and not the rule (relatively speaking that is! Our legislative branch is imploding as we speak!)
January 6th, 2006 at 9:37 pmMarie #45 .
First number 45…I wish you could have been there. It was awesome. Bubble boy did everything he could to not have to face the crowd. When he came out of the backdoor he had to make a left on Balbo and Michigan ave to avoid us. The very moment the cops closed traffic for his motorcade, a CTA Bus pulled along and stopped in front of the protest area. Everybody was in position so it didn’t matter but what they did is cut off the area so narrow it just made the crowd look larger.
No violence other than a mock public execution.
You’ve got to hear the tape of the protest, it is awesome. Its primal, its American. We’ll have it up on the show soon. The pix should be up tomorrow too.
I’m glad you asked about it. I had a great time. Wait till you see the Code Pink pix.
January 6th, 2006 at 9:44 pmOh yeah, #46
Yeah, I read it in yesterdays paper. Kerry got 44% of Dupage County in 04…guess thats too close for comfort for the criminals.
January 6th, 2006 at 9:45 pmResponding to yesterday’s government report showing paltry job creation in December, Treasury Secretary John Snow urged Americans not to overreact to one month’s snapshot, but to focus on the bigger picture. But that picture is not so pretty.
In 2005, the economy added about 2 million jobs. At this point in the last recovery, the yearly job-gain total was 3.5 million.
The longer view is even uglier. Job growth in the current period is the worst by far of the four comparable economic upturns since the 1960’s: 2.7 percent versus the 7.8 percent tallied in the weakest of those earlier recoveries.
It’s little wonder, then, that Bushy cherry-picked his way through the latest economic figures in his speech yesterday before the Economic Club of Chicago, rattling off numbers without context, as usual.
Dickhead’s prescription – more tax cuts – has failed in the past to create a robust job market and is still not the right answer.
For the past two years, average hourly wages and weekly salaries have been flat or falling. Americans’ borrowing binge has masked the decline in earning power, but good jobs and rising wages are essential for widespread prosperity. Without them, economic growth has become increasingly concentrated among corporations, shareholders and the top 20 percent or so of earners.
January 7th, 2006 at 9:21 amOh and by the way, the figures NEVER demonstrated the number of jobs that were lost. I would venture to say that figure is well over the figure for jobs created.
Once again, this time in Chicago MY hometown, bushy rolls in and vomits his lies to a select group of people. Meanwhile, the people HIS lies hurt, protest outside. Only causually mentioned by mainstream media.
I will be broadcasting a rather surreal audio (hopefully today) that will paint a more realistic picture of January 6, 2006 – the day more bullshit was shoveled in Chicago since the stockyards.
January 7th, 2006 at 9:31 amWhen Blair does get impeached and I think its coming soon ..Thats will be the weak link in the chain broken ..American can follow suit
There was a certain euphoria when Blair finaly got rid ob the Conservatives …He showed hope by invited the Likes of Oasis round to 10 downing street But that was a ploy …Hes turned out worse than the Conservatives Im ashamed of Him as he is a liar and a Mass Murderer ..
http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=29437&SESSION=875
if you sort by Party here you will see even 20 of his own Party labour want him impeached ……. the day will be here soon
January 7th, 2006 at 11:11 am#52 You are basically correct, as far as i understand Unemployemnt is basically reported as tabulated figures by the unemployment office. They then use statistical formulas. the one thing that concerned advocates, economists, democrats, et.al. have been complaining about since at least ‘02 is that once they are dropped form unemployment rolls they are no longer counted. that does not mean they have a job or are “employed” to the same level as before. this is a great example of where numbers only show a small part of the picture.
Additionally, it is my understanding that 2million jobs need to be created anually or around 200,000 monthly just to cover new workers entering the work force. [correct me if i am off].
#43&44 Excellent points!! though Iran and Syria have been on the list for quite some time, there is no justifiable reason to engage either country militarily. The evaluations i have heard from officers in the millitary is that an engagement with either nation will be much bloodier than Iraq.
As for the China thing.. yeah if they take too much of their investment away from us. our economy will virtually collapse. then we can be like Russia, a millitary superpower with bread lines and despair, but we will have nukes.
sigh… so saddened and frustrated with the state of my country.
BTW.. is anyone else disturbed by the Admin’s insistance on refering to the USA as the homeland, and the incessant display of millitary presence and every possible opportunity i.e sporting event flyovers, etc. [though it has seemed to dicrease a little since the 04 elections]
January 7th, 2006 at 12:16 pmAdditionally, it is my understanding that 2million jobs need to be created anually or around 200,000 monthly just to cover new workers entering the work force. [correct me if i am off].
Out of several resources, I’ve heard that this will change when the boomers retire because they number 78 million while X only has about 35 million, and that this vacuum will create a serious worker shortage in the coming years. Don’t know if it’s true, but the math makes sense… Since the generation after X won’t yet have the experience level to replace retiring senior level workers… In a big way, I hope this is true in part. Because if there are more jobs than employees, it will help get salaries and benefits to a respectable level, while teaching employers to respect and value employees, who will be rare and precious to them. And it might lend a hand to some reform in Washington… But, like most rumors, I guess time will tell…
January 7th, 2006 at 3:41 pm#63, Thanks for the additional info. That has been my understanding — the govt. figures present a rather distorted picture of unemployment in the country.
January 7th, 2006 at 10:53 pmTrashing an economy with less than 5% unemployment shows you just how out of touch the left is.
Comment by Tetracycline King #21
Trichomonas King,
Shutthefu*kup and grab a bucket, that trickle’s comin’ down any minute…
January 9th, 2006 at 9:17 amBush-Cons lookout…if the voters come to know reality,you and the Spin-Liars will never win again!
January 9th, 2006 at 7:03 pmUnfortunately for bubble boy, the CTA did not have a bus long enough to block the black, smoked glass, gas guzzlers passing by on Balbo Ave. from seeing my sign Support our Troops. Bring them home now!
January 9th, 2006 at 8:30 pmThe high that I felt was enough to make me forget how frozen I was.
Trolls always crack me up because they cant wait to prove to the Progressive community that there really are idiots who will buy this party line crap without question, consideration, or imagination; AND by their trolling, we will somehow come to our senses. I for one always ask the blind man for directions! “Just close your eyes, take 20 steps to your right, and believe!”
January 9th, 2006 at 8:33 pmI APPREICATE ANY WRITINGS THAT INCLUDE STATS THAT ARE TRUE PICTURE OF CURRENT CONDITIONS NOT JUST UNEMPLOYEMNT IS 4.9% WOW ALL TIME LOW ETC ETC AD NAUIUM
JOHN Q PUBLIC IS OBGVIOUSLY PRETTY SIMPLE MINDED AND NEEDS AN EDUCATION ON WHAT IS HAPPENING TO HIM
YOUR ARTICLES HOPEFULLY WILL ACCOMPLISH THEI IF DISTRIBUTED WIDELY ENOUGH
IF I WOULD HAVE DEBATED BUSH INSTEAD OF KERRY I WOULD HAVE BURIED THE POOR DUMBBELL WITH FACTS KERRY JUST “FORGOT”
I EMAILED HIS AIDES AND REMINDED THEM OF THEIR SHORTCOMINGS IN THE DEBATES ( AWS I DID GORES AIDES WHO DID NOT MENTION ANY OF BUSH TEXAS A\GENDAS WHICH HE SUPERIMPOSED ON THECOUNTRY ASSOON AS HE GOT IN
L.GEORGE POPOFF RETIRED
January 10th, 2006 at 1:31 amSR. VP CREDITSUISSE/FIRST BOSTON
TUCSON AZ. CHICAGO ILL
I think the Goverment wages and benifits and retirements should be comensurate tothe middle class americans. or based upon performance.
But since this will never happen. We are most likely seeing a prelude to the end of once a great country.
April 11th, 2006 at 10:51 am[...] Oh you are good, young Jedi. First, I think it is important to note that while the economy is “up,” as Ben says, when real wages are actually down and federal regulations are gutted or largely ignored by corporate cronies. At this rate, the leadership of this country is turning America into a third world nation of low-wage earners. Secondly, Shapiro is only providing half the story on Iraq War deaths. American deaths are down but Iraqi deaths are up. Ben would have his readers believe that the reduced American deaths are a sign of improvement on the ground when the reality is that the crosshairs were just placed elsewhere. Ben is either intellectually dishonest or non-American deaths are not as important. Both explanations are disgraceful. Thirdly, building up the “zero terrorist attacks” talking point is just silly. Despite a number of convenient false alarms, the authorities thwarted the plot to destroy the Brooklyn Bridge with a blow torch and a recycled claim that terrorists planned to crash a plane into a Los Angeles tower in 2002, of which some have questioned the illogical details of the plot. Ben is poppin’ the collective conservative collar for protecting America from threats that have not come to forition. If there were legitimate terrorist plots planned for within the United States that were stopped, Bush would be on television in a flight suit faster than you can say “rock bottom poll numbers.” The fact is that his numbers are so low that Bush needs a major thwarted terrorist plot to reverse the trend. The Democratic Party cannot be trusted with national security. This is a party more concerned with health care than terrorism, more concerned with global warming than Al Qaeda. They complain about President Bush’s use of wartime powers to order wiretapping on domestic to international phone calls between suspected terrorists, complaining that civil liberties are being violated. Democrats are more worried that the government will monitor calls between a mother and her daughter backpacking in Europe than that the government will ignore calls between deputies of Osama bin Laden and terrorists like Mohammed Atta. Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisconsin) attempts to have President Bush censured for protecting the American people. [...]
April 19th, 2006 at 6:13 am[...] I think it is important to note that while the economy is "up," as Ben says, when real wages are actually down and federal regulations are gutted or largely ignored by corporate cronies. At this rate, the leadership of this country is turning America into a third world nation of low-wage earners. [...]
December 20th, 2006 at 9:42 pm