You're not seeing the forest for the trees here. Look beyond the idealogical mask and see what is going on in society.
There is a large segment of the population absolutely addicted to Government handouts. If the unemployment rate goes to 20%, one of two things will happen. The tax rate will increase to exhorbitant levels (like 90%) to pay bennies -or- the bennies get cut off and all hell breaks loose on the streets. My money is on the tax increase of epic proportions.
This will not be your grandfather's depression where people politely got into breadlines and peacefully travelled the country looking for work. It will be bloody and violent as order breaks down because Sally Streetwalker doesn't get her "entitlement" that she has a "right" to and takes to the streets with a few thousand of her favorite buddies to protest the so-called "rich" and demand a piece of YOUR pie.
That's the corner we're painted into right now. Either we have lots of jobs to keep the monthly bennie-crack checks flowing, or we don't and all these people are loosed upon the streets to rob you blind quite legally at the ballot box.
Doesn't sound too fun to me.
You missed the point, although I stated it clearly in the previous post: by historical standards, we are doing fine; the situation is being misrepresented by the loud voices we hear.
I do not need an explanation that at 20% unemployment indeed becomes a social problem.