[madfly]

I find the discontinuation of such an important program hard to understand.

This topic is a little out of my league. I am posting in hopes of an informative discussion, but preparing to be flamed, nontheless. :)

[madfly]

ping

[Glenn]

I am posting in hopes of an informative discussion, but preparing to be flamed, nontheless. :)

Imagine your surprise when you find out this material has been running in another thread for hours.

[hsmomx3]

When I see the word "volunteerism" I go crazy. Why? It's because people need to start taking care of their own children/households first, then they can volunteer. Seems that too many people are busy for others yet neglect their families.

[Free the USA]

There ought to be a better way to gather data than to have the Government do it with the likelihood data might be manipulated for political ends.

[69ConvertibleFirebird]

Why would anyone need a govt. report on anything, especially layoffs??? If there is a need for it private industry will do it. If investment firms need to know layoffs for their decisions they will come up with the data. And a LOT more efficiently than lazy govt. employees

The economy grew at 3.4% last year. Unemploment is only 6%. Housing sales broke all records in October 2002. 170,000 jobs were CREATED last year (despite the layoff scare articles). The economy is doing just fine thank you...

[Physicist]

The Bush administration, under fire for its handling of the economy, has quietly killed off a Labor Department program that tracked mass layoffs by U.S. companies.

It's not that they didn't want the information, it's just that the program was redundant. It was discovered that they could get the same information simply by logging onto FreeRepublic and searching for Willie Green's posts.

[Alberta's Child]

I read somewhere that one of the big concerns was that "corporate layoff" numbers had become such bullsh!t that they were meaningless. Many large companies announced such layoff plans specifically to make it seem as if they were driving down costs, thereby inflating the value of their stocks.

If AT&T announced that they were laying off 10,000 people within the next six months, many of them were people who simply took an early retirement offer and should not have counted in the "layoff" statistics.

[billbears]

Now Bush the younger is following in his father's footsteps, once again deciding that the American people have no real need to know how many mass layoffs are made each month.

It's not that citizens of the respective states have no real to need to know, it's the simple fact this is just another example of the national government doing something it wasn't originally intended to do. Eliminating the Labor Department as a whole, not just this one part, should be a good start

[rwfromkansas]

They didn't have anymore funding. That is why it was killed.

[Willie Green]

Related thread: U.S. Drops Report On Mass Layoffs

Modeling itself after Pravda, the Rove/Bush Administration comes up with a lame excuse for suppressing "negative" information that would reflect poorly on its economic policies.

---

Coincidentally, the same conclusion was reached in 1992 when the first President Bush canceled the Mass-Layoffs Statistics program amid election-year charges that he had bungled handling of the economy.

Good grief. Juanterm Bush is following exactly in Read My Lip's footsteps.

He really DID inherit the "stupid" gene, didn't he?

[WRhine]

"Now Bush the younger is following in his father's footsteps, once again deciding that the American people have no real need to know how many mass layoffs are made each month."

"On the other hand, the Labor Department this week released a sweeping study of volunteer work over the past year, reporting that 59 million Americans donated their time and know-how to helping others."

Volunteer Work should be a burgeoning business for the administration as they ship more of our jobs overseas while importing massive amounts of foreign labor.

"The United States economy is growing again," Bush declared in a holiday radio address from his Texas ranch. "This economy is strong and it can be stronger."

And if not, best to just sweep the whole mess under the rug.

This administration is losing its credibility very quickly.

[Eastbound]

Well, I'm not all that of a financial wizard either, madfly. But I don't think it would take a degree in finance to realize that the information is still compiled and packaged. Just who gets it is the big question. Certainly would allow a quick buy-off or sell-off at the opening bell if you had the edge. Like the orange futures in "Trading Places."

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

Typical of bungling politicians. "In declining states the leadership intuitively choses the most harmful course of action."-A Great Historian 1888

Office holders in America 2003 A.D. can't help it, it is their nature, their essence, their very being. We are being flooded with third world trash. Jobs are leaving the country at a rate that staggers the imagination. The constitution is being violated right and left. Our foreign policy is run in the interest of alien nations. The office holders are so busy "balancing diverse interests" that they no longer govern in a just manner i.e. preferences.

[wharfrat]

You will find as you age not so gracefully, that there are selective groups, certainly not the norm thankfully, that exhibit very little sympathy or empathy to those who have suffered the indignity of job loss. The vast majority of them have no desire to be eternally on the government dole. The lack of empathy from this small vocal callous crowd of self righteous hypocrits have just somehow managed by hook or crook to sidestep being involved themselves. Since they obviously have never had to deal with spending time in unemployment lines they don't see the total picture layoffs present. In considering the "BIG PICTURE" the facts are this; sometime bad things happen to good people!

The stability of government programs have always been attacked because there is and always have been a percentage of people from back to early America who have been raised to believe the government owes them a living. There was a time back then when the popular saying was if you don't work you don't eat! The attitude of the vast majority of the unemployed is that opportunity abounds and it does! All of us have been required to accept positions we deem below us but you must come to grips with the fact that the economy is not the greatest, because we are in fact at WAR; even though it doesn't always see to be so!

To berate a person because he or she is "TEMORARILLY" out of work is callous and un-called for. This as I have said before is a transition period for the vast majority of those affected.Welfare should be limited and considered WORKFARE instead! It should never be easy and comfortable to be out of work! Benefits are only a bridge over troubled waters; not punched tickets to easy street! By the same token we don't have to revert to a barbarian culture either! Some need more help than others. If for what ever reason you have not had to contend with this issue remember this. The forcasts for the future do not bode well and I hope they are wrong! Most people living now don't believe the horror stories of the depression but my family lived through it somehow and the levels of unemployment were higher than it has been in our lifetimes. Your arrogant attitude may be wiped off your smug faces shortly if things don't turn around for the economy. Then you too will be scrapping and fighting like the rest of us today. Our terrorist enemies are out to destroy our national economy and whether you believe it or not they are having measured success,you will be one of those you criticize today if things don't change for the better. Your bravado will fade like a shirt in the sun one day when you need a smile and a few kind words from a world of uncareing people who are too busy to give you a passing glance!

[glock rocks]

let me begin by saying [*smooch*]

i was going to jump four-square into your DU face over posting this dive to the sewer sorry excuse for... wait ... omg, it's you, madfly!

then i read your comment. thanks for the ping, madfly :o)

this is a wonderful article along the lines of those in all the big socialist urban center's publications. now let's parade the poor hungry and homeless. there's a pubbie in power.

the poop on the power is always present. folk of all stripe can jump on this wagon.

this will only change when there are many dead in the street. i'd prefer it happened much, much later if not never. but then, i'm an optimist.

[saradippity]

I find the discontinuation of such an important program hard to understand.

I find it hard to undestand too. I am amazed at the posters who cavalierly dismiss it based on their belief that all government programs are bad.

This program is important because it gives anyone wanting to discuss the state of the nation important,comprehensible data that can be used to buttress analyses that include the fact that if this country doesn't step back and rethink where we have been going for some time now,and make some adjustments,we are doomed.

I would surmise that the program was eliminated so as not to disturb the optimism that is engendered by promoting the idea that you can hold up the market by believing "that thinking can make it so."

Thanks for a good post.

[Tailgunner Joe]

The Socialists in government want to gather this info so they can then publicize it to stoke the flames of class warfare and Anti-capitalism.

Anyone who doesn't want to ever be able to be fired should employ themselves. They certainly shouldn't work for huge corporations.

The last thing we want is economists running our country.