Latest German unemployment rate and socialism

[LilKim]

In response to the following news story:

German jobless rate at new record

More than 5.2 million Germans were out of work in February, new figures show.

The figure of 5.216 million people, or 12.6% of the working-age population, is the highest jobless rate in Europe's biggest economy since the 1930s.

The news comes as the head of Germany's panel of government economic advisers predicted growth would again stagnate.

Full story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4307303.stm

What some might call a 'freeper-like' individual (or at least a free market libertarian -- I'm not sure of the details of his politics), posted the following in another forum (not FR):

Overall the EU unemployment rate is close to twice that in the US. France is around 9% if I recall the stats correctly. The US is just over 5%.

Also just released is the EU economic growth rate which is close to 0. In fact, if you remove the export growth (primarily to the US and China) and look solely at the EU domestic economy, they are in technical recession. And have been for several years.

The more left/Socialist they get, the worse their economies get. The Soviet Union proved how that works. The EU is on its way.

But the left still insists that they blindly march on in the same direction.

Remember, EU, when you've dug yourself into a hole and you want to get out, the first step is: STOP DIGGING!

And I would be interested in comments.

[Hugin]

1. I don't believe our current labor statistics... n/t

[MisterP]

2. I recall Schröder privatizing like crazy: since it failed like the other

4,293,837 times, its occurrence will be denied or ignored, and Thatcherism will be foisted on another unsuspecting nation as the only and inevitable choice

[LynnTheDem]

3. So not worth the time to bother.

Try comparing US to Canada.

Let's see; whose currency is shaky? Who's got the biggest deficit in history? Who's got the biggest trade gap in history?

Who's the only president since Hoover to still preside over a net job loss, and boosts the employment rate by over-expanding the government to the largest govt in US history?

Remember, America, when you've dug yourself into a hole and you want to get out, the first step is stop electing rightwingnuts and the 2nd is to STOP DIGGING!

[Nite Owl]

4. Our unemployment rate is

much higher that 5%. I used to have a site bookmarked that had it calculated they way that Europe does and there was little difference. We also suffer more from unemployment since there is a loss of healthcare and other benefits.

[porphyrian]

5. Voodoo Economics

When trying to have a decent economy for all begins to fail, declare it proof that liberal methods can never work and, instead, make the economy work distinctly well for a few people at everyone else's expense.

[redqueen]

6. I'm not sure how Germany or France measure unemployment, but here ...

they use a survey conducted by phone.

Also, the published number for the US doesn't include something called 'marginally attached workers'.

From the BLS website:

"NOTE: Marginally attached workers are persons who currently are neither working nor looking for work but indicate that they want
and are available for a job and have looked for work sometime in the recent past. Discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally
attached, have given a job-market related reason for not currently looking for a job. Persons employed part time for economic
reasons are those who want and are available for full-time work but have had to settle for a part-time schedule. For further
information, see "BLS introduces new range of alternative unemployment measures," in the October 1995 issue of the Monthly Labor
Review. Beginning in January 2005, data reflect revised population controls used in the household survey."

Including those 'marginally attached' workers, the unemployment rate in Jan 2005 is actually 9.3%

See the whole table here.

[Swamp Rat]

7. Flawed statistical analysis...sehr schlect!

It doesn't account for fluid immigration and the inconsistencies created by Schröeder's privitisation program.

[democracyindanger]

8. The USSR was as socialist as

The old German Democratic Republic was democratic. And the genius poster leaves out the unemployment rates of 'left/socialist' EU members like Ireland, the UK and the Netherlands--just to name a few--whose rates are equal to or less than the ours.

And what does '...more left/Socialist they get...' mean? What's his scale for determining "left/Socialist"? I'd bet Braniac thinks "coalition of the willing" member Poland is a good, non-socialist country. So how does he explain its 16% unemployment? Spain's 14%? Italy's 11%?

[Dirk39]

9. Hello from Germany!

"Socialism" - that's a joke: Schröder's SPD is a 100% neoliberal Blairist/Clintonist Party and the german Greens are a higher-middle-class neoliberal party.
They govern us since 1998: what they did?
Privatize everything
lower the wages
destroy the unions

The "Agenda 2010" and the so-called Hartz-Laws were not only named but written by a VW-Manager, who claimed this would lead to million of new jobs.

The results of the red-green government are a catastrophe. The corporations and the right-wing media brought Schröder to power in Germany to leave the victims of their politics without any kind of opposition. They knew that if the christian conservative party would have tried the same, the social democrats and the unions would not have let that happen.

Schröder is a 5 dollor whore.

Besides: the numbers are not comparable, 'cause our measures are closer to reality than the U.S. ones. If you use the ILO-Numbers, there would be about 3,8 million unemployed people.
And if you take into consideration how many people in the U.S. are imprisoned...

And, although Schröder and his gang is trying hard: we still not have people, who have one or two jobs, but cannot afford to pay the rent.

Hello from green-red ultracapitalism,

Dirk

[applegrove]

10. Germany just inherited East Germany. Give them time!!

Oh and they have a little bit of a problem with illegal immigrants taking jobs. ...... give yourself (USA) some time and you will see!