Posted on 12/17/2014 5:38:51 AM PST by LeoMcNeil
If you listen to the Obama administration you might believe the economy is roaring. On some level jobs are being created. The problem of course is that they’re barely keeping up with population growth. Millions of jobs were lost when the recession took place in late 2008-2009. Very few of those jobs have been recovered, leaving millions in long term unemployment. The real unemployment rate, the Federal government’s U-6 number, is 11%. U-6 unemployment counts both the long term unemployed, which the official unemployment rate doesn’t do, as well as those who are underemployed. U-6 used to be the way unemployment was calculated, if you go back to the 70’s and 80’s unemployment rates were higher because the official rate was what we now call U-6. With an unemployment rate of 11%, the economy really isn’t very strong.
One in five millennials are living in poverty. This is a substantial increase in the poverty rate for people of this age group. Just thirty years ago it was one in seven living in poverty. Today, 13.5 million young adults live in poverty. Interestingly this was one of Obama’s biggest group of supporters in both 2008 and 2012. What exactly has Obama done for them? Finding a job and rising out of poverty is no easier today than it was in 2008. Unemployment rates for recent college graduates are shockingly high and have been for the entire Obama administration. In the recent midterm, millennial voters shifted away from the Democrats. This is the group that has suffered the most under the Obama economy. Nothing has improved for them.
For over three years there have been 46 million Americans on food stamps. According to the Census Bureau, 65% of children in this country are part of a family on some form of Federal welfare program. These numbers are staggering because they suggest that 2/3 of the children in America are living in poverty. On some level we have to take these numbers with a grain of salt. Welfare benefits are overly generous in many states. People who are not actually poor often qualify for food stamps, WIC or other welfare programs. In that regard, the government is creating a culture of dependency that will stick with children the rest of their lives. These days it isn’t just poor children who are affected, it’s middle class children as well.
Despite overly generous welfare benefits, the numbers suggest the economy isn’t improving. While it may be too easy to obtain welfare benefits, if people had better paying jobs they wouldn’t qualify for benefits. Either there aren’t better paying jobs available or people aren’t accepting better paying jobs because accepting them would mean giving up government freebies. No doubt there are examples of both problems out there. Unfortunately, it pays to work less and accept government handouts. There are, however, people out there who want a better paying job but they simply cannot find one. Incomes are down in this country in the last six years, the economy is not doing well. The average American feels it, even the average middle class family. Our incomes are down, especially compared to inflation. When costs rise and incomes don’t people are able to buy less with their money. This has the same affect as a decrease in wages.
Neither party appears very interested in trying to fix the economy. Obama and the Democrats are hellbent on making millions of illegal immigrants legal. How this helps the American job situation, especially those at the bottom of the economy, is anyone’s guess. The Republicans are no better. They’re funding Obama’s amnesty plans and the establishment wants to make these people legal in order to provide a bigger pool of cheap labor. Meanwhile the Republicans continue to fund Obamacare and any number of regulations promulgated by the Obama administration which cost jobs. Rather than arguing for fewer regulations and less government involvement in the economy, the Republicans make no arguments and fund Obama’s messes. Meanwhile 65% of children are living in families that are on the dole, 46 million Americans are on food stamps and 20% of young people are living in poverty. No one talks about the economy, no one talks about jobs, no one talks about the future.
Let’s hope the adults can take control again. Honestly, I don’t care from where they arise. All I know is it is going to take decades to reverse all the destruction done by this Admin. Pray we are up to the task of saving America.
Rush had this nailed.
As long as you can still get groceries, and the cell phone and cable TV continue to work, why would you care?
Given the ever-increasing $20T+ debt, I wonder if the notion of "trying to fix the economy" is more like the notion of "rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic". and the only desparate efforts are focused on trying to keep the American economy afloat long enough with smoke and mirrors so that it doesn't sink during the lifetime of the current politicians.
Huh?...George 2 started this slide toward hopeless debt, recreational "regime change", bailing out banks and new government programs. George 1 with his interference in public education opened that economic black hole. When is the last time a Republican President spoke out against the Federal Reserve? etc
I get the impression that the only economy Repbulican leadership cares about is global domination by the elite.
Despite overly generous welfare benefits, the numbers suggest the economy isn’t improving. While it may be too easy to obtain welfare benefits, if people had better paying jobs they wouldn’t qualify for benefits.
Around here, (central Kentucky), this statement rings true. The average pay is $10 per hour. When compared to the welfare payouts the average person, (male or female), loses out economically to those on welfare. Sad but true... and I see the effects of welfare on the community as each year passes by.
Landlords don’t want to put money into their property because the tenants won’t pay for better living conditions and the landlord still has to pay property taxes and more on those properties. The Towns are running at near a deficit and although the can raise the tax load to bring in more money, those that they tax are crying out because the loads are breaking them.
It becomes a vicious circle. What is the remedy? At the very real risk of being called a cruel unfeeling monster, my solution is... Stop the Welfare Check, eliminate the minimum wage and lastly enforce rigorously the immigration laws already on the books.
Alas I know that what I think is the right thing to do is nothing but a conservative’s pipe dream. The reality is that the Nation known as the United States of America is going to end up in a Civil War of unbelievable complexity.
This “great economy” has just about brought me to financial ruin. He can’t leave office fast enough for me. One of the only our economy is going to really recover is to get rid of Obamacare. The fallout from it is tremendous impacting the economy on so many levels and even the doctors don’t like it because they get paid much less than they used to. They are taking cash payments under the table everywhere. It’s just extortion set up to look like healthcare. You know it really is when they penalize you if you don’t play...
Mafia dons are weeping because they didn’t think of this first...
I took the comment as sarcasm with respect to how media holds administrations to account for the economy.
The prime objective for the media the last 6 years has been, “how do we protect Obama today?”
I see the same thing in the country counties of western and northwestern Michigan. Welfare pays better than jobs. At lot of folks are enterprising, they’re more than willing to work under the table. The issue for them isn’t that they don’t want to work, it’s that they don’t want to report income and see their benefits disappear.
The only way to stop this is to substantially reduce the amount of welfare people receive. The problem with that is that businesses have become, on some level, dependent on welfare. Grocery stores are dependent on the overly generous food stamp benefits people get. I once looked up how much my family would get if we qualified for food stamps. It was more than we spend out of our own pocket. Grocery stores are reaping the benefit of these over payments. So are landlords, which can guarantee themselves a rent check each month through Section 8 housing. Those people are going to fight against cutting back as much as the recipients.
Ultimately with an $18 trillion debt, fast approaching $20 trillion, we cannot keep paying welfare benefits forever. No doubt, there are other expenditures that have contributed to the debt. Those need to be cut too. But we can’t provide food stamps for a family of six that is over and above what a typical middle class family of six pays on groceries. People won’t starve, they’ll shop sales like I do.
An interesting aside: The grocery store where I shop has a bunch of VASTLY OVERPRICED staple items near the registers, instead of impulse-buy items.
Those are clearly for the "I-don't-give-a-crap-about-cost-it's-free-to-me" crowd.
If you go deeper into the store, you can get the same items at 1/2, 1/4, even 1/8th the price.
I'm no longer sure about that. Now that Republicans are EXACTLY like Democrats, I don't forsee the Propaganda Ministry Media criticizing them any more.
I expect they will simply deny reality outright. (Well, you know, more than usual).
No number of decades will fix this.
All nations rise, peak, then fall. We are in the fall.
There are only three ways to create wealth make it, mine it or grow it. We need to get back to making it again.
I agree with both your comments to the effect that the Republicans have made themselves virtually indistinguishable from the enemy.
Nice rant Mr. McNeil.
Absolutely correct and I agree with you 100%.
As a volunteer triage interviewer at a local food/clothing/etc bank, I see this all the time. A client will be on “disability” (the new welfare) and working under the table. Even though they could improve their lifestyle considerably by getting a job, they won’t give up the monthly government check. “If I did that (get a job), I’d have to give up my food stamps.” This is what you call a dependency mindset. It’s a tough nut to crack.
Thank you for that clarification. We’re usually on the same page, as is the case here.
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