Posted on 07/04/2006 9:28:05 AM PDT by Abathar
No matter how good the U.S. economy gets, no matter how many new jobs are created, the red-hot economy still gets no respect from the media, leading The Wall Street Journal to call it the "Rodney Dangerfield economy."
The media have consistently downplayed the turbocharged U.S. economy, now in its fifth year of solid economic expansion. And yet almost any country in the world would gladly trade its economic conditions for a U.S. economy.
In Canada, it was headline news in June that the unemployment rate fell to a 32-year low of 6.1 percent. In more than a decade, the United States has not had an unemployment rate higher than 6 percent except for five months in 2003, and our media disparagingly dismissed that period as a "jobless recovery."
With the same unemployment rates of about 6 percent, it's a "jobless recovery" according to the U.S. media, and the strongest economic expansion in more than a generation in Canada!
Another example of the media's downplaying of the U.S. economy is its neglect of the history-making news that nine states have set record-low unemployment rates so far in 2006, and an additional 15 states are within a percent of their historical low jobless rates. Almost half of all states are at or near their lowest jobless rates in history, and we hear nothing about it from the media. Even though a national unemployment rate of 4.6 percent gets no respect from the media here, almost any country in Europe would love to have our labor market conditions.
It's been more than a quarter-century since France or Germany has had unemployment rates anywhere close to 4.6 percent, and 30 years since the European Union countries as a group have had a jobless rate that low.
If the European Union were a U.S. state, its current overall unemployment rate of 7.5 percent would rank it the highest in the United States except for Mississippi.
Where are the stories about the more than 5.2 million U.S. jobs that have been created in the past two years, a pace that adds more than 142,000 jobs every month? Where is the coverage of the phenomenal 5.2 percent growth in real U.S. output so far this year, which is double the growth rate of most European countries?
And what about the dire warnings of the "2003 tax cuts for the rich" that the media trumpeted so loudly several years ago?
Where are the reports today about the explosion in tax revenues generated by the strongest economy in a decade, and the increasing share of taxes paid by "the rich?"
In the first eight months of the current fiscal year, federal tax receipts have increased by 13 percent, the second-highest rate of growth for that eight-month period in the last 25 years, surpassed only by last year's increase of 15 percent.
Further, the share of taxes paid by the wealthiest 10 percent has increased in each year since the 2003 tax cut, rising from less than 50 percent of all income taxes paid in 2003 to almost 60 percent in 2005.
In other words, the media spin about "tax cuts for the rich" never materialized - tax revenues have increased significantly and the rich are paying more in taxes. Where are the news stories now about the "tax hike for the rich"?
Even in its worst recession, the U.S. economy is still stronger than almost any other country in the world during its best years.
And yet, even now, when the U.S. economy has a historically high level of employment, historically low unemployment rates in nine states and higher national income, output and tax revenues than at any time in U.S. history, the Dangerfield economy still gets no respect.
Mark J. Perry is an associate professor of finance and economics at the University of Michigan at Flint. This was distributed by McClatchy-Tribune News Service.
1. You can move to a place where there is functionally zero unemployment. Washington DC and the northern Virginia suburbs of DC is such a place. Employers are desperate. They'll hire chimps, with or without a clearance.
2. You can change your job skills so that you have skills that are in demand where you live.
3. You can start your own business.
4. You can continue whining about how tough it is, lose your job, go on unemployment until that runs out, and move in with your mom.
Responsible adults usually choose 1,2, or 3 unless they suffer a life-threatening illness and truly cannot support themselves. But whining about how tough it is rarely helps bring in money.
Liberal democrat "journalists" have made a pretty good living doing just that at least as long as there is a host to be a parasite off.
I think I would get new friends and consider moving to where there are more and better jobs. This happens in a market economy. Only in a command economy like the Soviet Union is one guaranteed a job and complete security from cradle to grave.
Cuba is closer. And has nicer weather.
That statement, plus the fact that you don't care about what the stats say about everyone else, tells us that you and your friends were either working for the New York Times or the Democratic National Committee.
When y'all say to each other that it's the worst economy since Hoover, that's one thing. When you try and pull that line on a forum like this one you've got to know that you're sounding like a full blown looney-toon.
My contract just ended, I'm still getting calls and I'm looking for a new job besides Illinois..
Fortunately or unfortunately, we can't all be journalists.
And as long as George Bush is President it won't get any respect from the left and the uber-right (so far right they're coming up on the left).
You haven't a clue; go buy some. The last few years of the 20th century were NOT the "high point of our economy"! And you and your "friends" are NOT the only ones living/the exemplars of how our economy really is. But the DOW, unemployment figures, GDP, and a lot of other indicators are!
We're having a TERRIBLE storm...so the BBQ/party I was invited to got rained out; as did the fireworks tonight. :-(
Because I've gotta' tell you, if you think this economy is only good for people who aspire to be dishwashers, then . . . let me just repeat I'd like to know where you live so that I can take a look at one of those online job websites to see if what you say is true.
Got it. 144,000,000 jobs don't count, just the one you don't have. LOL!
There are hundreds of millions of other American workers like us who are also very real. Ordinarily, those of us who've read your posts wouldn't have anything personal against y'all, but the fact that you're considering us just a bunch of nameless statistics (and you don't give a rip what *ANY* statistics say"), sure doesn't make it very easy for us to give a dingle dong about your problems.
No wonder you talk about YOUR GALAXY and completely discount the one in which I reside. You live in a perpetual state of delusion and self centered, petulant childhood; where history only begins when you enter the job market and only you and the very paltry of people you know, matter. OTOH, I live in the real world.
Gee, according to your rules, there was NO recession during the Carter and early Reagan years, because my family and the 100s of people we knew, were all making money hand over fist ! Nobody else counted...right? LOL
My grandparents and great grandparents didn't have any money in the market ( they'd all gotten out of it several months earlier ) in Oct. of '29, so gee....I guess there was NO crash and nobody lost a dime, back then. Right? ROTFLMSO
Dishwasher? Is that what your prospects are?
You keep playing the victim, poor-mouthing, whinging, and yelling me, me, me, MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
There are lots of good paying jobs out, all over this nation. If your friends can't get one, perhaps the fault lies within themselves.
People used to work six days a week. Then it was cut back to 5 1/2, and then, five. Everyone has ALWAYS needed to "keep up" with current knowledge and skills.
Instead of lying in a fetal position, sucking your thumb, and crying like a 44 year old baby about how everything is just so rotten, get off the computer and be a man.
Have you ever heard such unadulterated piffle? LOL
Maybe on DU. He could be Willie Green. Slinking back to spread doom and gloom.
Oh come on......even poor old Willie Green wasn't ever THIS much of a damned baby.
You got several replies asking where you lived and your typical job function but you have not replied. While some responses were testy, others were calm and showed a willingness to help given some information. I can understand if you do not want to accept generalities like the DOW, GDP ... but don't expect people to take your generalities seriously either. For your post to have any real punch, disclose your state and general metro-area if you will and your industry/job function. If you'd like to be extra helpful, disclose the industry/job function of your friends who lost their jobs. There are plenty of good right-thinking people here who would help you with pointers or actual job postings if you'd move beyond the general.
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