So there are 7 million more unemployed than when Bush took office?
"Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 193,000 in January, and the
unemployment rate fell to 4.7 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of
the U.S. Department of Labor reported today."
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm
Has the unemployment rate ever been so low in your lifetime?
If this was true, why isn't the NYT on it like ugly on an ape? My BS meter is upwardly mobile.
This is at least the third time (that I've seen) that this Paul Craig Roberts bilge has been posted. Cherry picked stats don't make for an accurate presentation of the truth.
No manufacturing is good news. We need more low skilled jobs to keep the political class in power.
holy overreaction batman
"United States is experiencing a job depression..."
So much for his opinion. What does he mean that the BLS "rebenchmarked" the statistics? If you change the way they are calculated, that does not alter the number of jobs you have.
I have the answer to this...
Recruit jobs at the Mexican boarder. Put them on a plane to Iraqi, accompanied by bags and bags of Portland cement. Send along a parish priest for every 2500 Mexicans.
This would solve our problem, and help with Iraqi at the same time.
Well, it sure looks like ANYONE can get a job writing columns, no matter how ignorant you might be.
And yet, US GDP is 11 trillion and growing at 3-4% annually far outpacing the second largest economy. This 'news' does not jibe with other measures of wealth. Even if the illegals (in total) are over 10 million, and ALL of them work, it'd amount to less than 10% of the entire US workforce. The population recently passed the 300 million milestone. Who do you think is catering to all those people? GDP size and growth, population size and growth make this report on the size of the labor pool suspect.
This explains why economic growth is so strong and unemployment is so low.
Friends Don't Let Friends Write Insane Columns In Counterpunch
Paul Craig Roberts, a man who was once, (admittedly long, long, ago) a fairly reliable conservative, has now gone so far off the deep end that even the likes of Pat Buchanan may start to get a little nervous about associating with him.
From Roberts' latest editorial in Counterpunch (Counterpunch! What self-respecting conservative would ever write for that digital rubber room for liberals?):
"Having eliminated internal opposition, the Bush administration is now using blackmail obtained through illegal spying on American citizens to silence the media and the opposition party.
Before flinching at my assertion of blackmail, ask yourself why President Bush refuses to obey the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The purpose of the FISA court is to ensure that administrations do not spy for partisan political reasons. The warrant requirement is to ensure that a panel of independent federal judges hears a legitimate reason for the spying, thus protecting a president from the temptation to abuse the powers of government. The only reason for the Bush administration to evade the court is that the Bush administration had no legitimate reasons for its spying. This should be obvious even to a naif.
The United States is undergoing a coup against the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, civil liberties, and democracy itself. The "liberal press" has been co-opted. As everyone must know by now, the New York Times has totally failed its First Amendment obligations, allowing Judith Miller to make war propaganda for the Bush administration, suppressing for an entire year the news that the Bush administration was illegally spying on American citizens, and denying coverage to Al Gore's speech that challenged the criminal deeds of the Bush administration.
The TV networks mimic Fox News' faux patriotism. Anyone who depends on print, TV, or right-wing talk radio media is totally misinformed. The Bush administration has achieved a de facto Ministry of Propaganda.
The years of illegal spying have given the Bush administration power over the media and the opposition. Journalists and Democratic politicians don't want to have their adulterous affairs broadcast over television or to see their favorite online porn sites revealed in headlines in the local press with their names attached. Only people willing to risk such disclosures can stand up for the country.
....Consider the no-fly list. This list has no purpose whatsoever but to harass and disrupt the livelihoods of Bush's critics. If a known terrorist were to show up at check-in, he would be arrested and taken into custody, not told that he could not fly. What sense does it make to tell someone who is not subject to arrest and who has cleared screening that he or she cannot fly? How is this person any more dangerous than any other passenger?
If Senator Ted Kennedy, a famous senator with two martyred brothers, can be put on a no-fly list, as he was for several weeks, anyone can be put on the list. The list has no accountability. People on the list cannot even find out why they are on the list. There is no recourse, no procedure for correcting mistakes.
...How long before members of the opposition party, should there be one, find that they cannot return to Washington for important votes, because they have been placed on the no-fly list?
...Many readers have told me, some gleefully, that I will be placed on the no-fly list along with all other outspoken critics of the growth in unaccountable executive power and war based on lies and deception. It is just a matter of time."
Roberts is completely out of his mind.
"They're blackmailing the Democrats and the press! They're going to block Democrats from voting by putting them on the no-fly lists. They're going to put me on a no-fly list and then I'll be grounded for life! Gargle floppity floop!"
Someone put Paul Craig Roberts back on his medicine before he writes another insane editorial in Couterpunch. In fact, let me make a plea: if you're one of Paul Craig Roberts' friends, a family member, maybe even someone who used to be a pal of his: pick up the phone, call him right now, and say, "Paul, you're acting a little crazy and I'm concerned about you." Hey, Paul Craig Roberts, back when he was sane, would have done it for you.
Remember, friends don't let friends write insane columns in Counterpunch.
How come every businessman I know is begging for workers? How come every business I patronize has signs in the window that say "Now Hiring"?
These bean-counters can be such noodles.
In another set of statistics on the employment market I read that more than one million of the "new" jobs were in government. The figure was about 100,000 more positions than were created in the private sector. That should be enough to curl the hair of any one who can think. It might also eliminate future employment opportunities for many hairdressers.