Why the Idiocy About Unemployment?

[defendandprotect]

Excerpts --

Why the Idiocy About Unemployment?

by Les Leopold - author "The Looting of America" --

My wife, a labor economist, is upset with NPR's "The Take Away" (and many other news programs) for reinforcing the myth that somehow the unemployed are to blame for not having a job. We all should be angry as well because the jobs just aren't there. In fact, the latest unemployment statistics show that there are five unemployed workers available for every vacant job. Why blame workers when it's so clear that Wall Street's reckless gambling caused the jobs crisis?

1. Extended unemployment benefits are causing unemployment. Extending benefits for the long-term unemployed will only encourage them to sit at home on their extended derrieres and let vacant jobs go begging.

What jobs? We're down 8 million since the start of the Great Recession. We aren't even creating enough new jobs to keep up with population growth. So what jobs are the unemployed not taking?

Why is this so difficult to grasp? And why are so many people angry at the long-term unemployed and not at the bankers who actually created this mess?

Economist Dean Baker suggests that the Republicans are trying to keep unemployment as high as possible right now because they think that high jobless numbers will spell disaster for the Democrats in November. And if we give the unemployed extended benefits, that money will act as a stimulus, generating more jobs. Well, we can't have that! It's better for the Republicans if the economy stays in the ditch.

But what about Obama and the Democrats? Why aren't they at the barricades, fighting for the unemployed? They could be flooding the talk shows with a raucous defense of the jobless. They could be putting ads up all over the country, explaining why the long-term unemployed deserve our support. They ought to be ridiculing any politician or pundit who argues against jobless benefits. Where the hell is their outrage?



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/les-leopold/why-the-idiocy-about-unem_b_640585.html

[pinboy3niner]

1. You answered your own question

"Economist Dean Baker suggests that the Republicans are trying to keep unemployment as high as possible right now because they think that high jobless numbers will spell disaster for the Democrats in November. And if we give the unemployed extended benefits, that money will act as a stimulus, generating more jobs. Well, we can't have that! It's better for the Republicans if the economy stays in the ditch."

Dems are responding, and should soon be getting more attention. The media--at least the legitimate media--love point/counterpoint.

[dkf]

2. Wouldn't there be enough jobs if all the illegal immigrants were replaced by people here legally?

I honestly think that the jobs being done by people here illegally are the exact jobs that can't be moved overseas or they would have been by now. These are the jobs we need to fight for and we need to be sure they provide a living wage.

[kelly1mm]

4. I tend to agree. Not that popular a position around here though. nt

[Berserker]

5. STOP THAT SHIT

you are making sense.

[emilyg]

7. Thank you.

[AdHocSolver]

9. Wrong! The main U.S. economic problem is not illegal aliens.

The problem is that practically everything we buy is made overseas so that practically every dime we spend leaves the country to pay a foreign worker. That foreign worker pays no U.S. taxes.

If all illegal aliens were replaced by American workers, so long as practically everything sold in the U.S. is made in a foreign country, the jobs problem and the U.S. economic problems would remain little changed.

[JoeyT]

12. Well, kind of, but not really.

They're virtually all service sector and agriculture jobs. Really low pay service sector and agriculture jobs.
So no, running ten thousand illegal immigrants out of three dollar an hour jobs isn't going to make up for closing a plant that had three hundred people making twenty bucks an hour. (I'm using the mill that closed down here as an example.)

The answer is to make it REALLY hard to outsource. Like scrotum-shriveling taxes hard. Then free up the service sector and ag jobs too. As the labor pool shrinks the crappy employers will have to pay more, whether they want to or not. It's that or retrain someone every other week.

Edited to add: If we can have a freaking special soda tax and a tax on whatever other random thing strikes peoples' fancy, I see absolutely no reason why there can't be an outsourcing tax. Besides the absurd amount of corporate money being poured into the coffers of both parties, I mean.

[bluethruandthru]

18. +100 n/t

[area51]

19. +1

Single-payer would create so many jobs, and we need so many more nurses & drs.

Each day, 273 people die due to lack of health care in the U.S.

We need single-payer health care, not a welfare bailout for the serial-killer insurance agencies.

[eilen]

27. Construction jobs.

Immigrant workers (documented and undocumented) The data says 17% of all construction jobs but the jobs my brother goes to it is more like 75%.

[defendandprotect]

13. We see a lot of discussion about these jobs which often pay even LOWER than

than minimum wage --

These are usually greedy employers who use illegals because they don't want to even

pay the minimum! And, needless to say, NOT a living wage --

If these jobs paid living wages, Americans would take them.

THESE are not the jobs we want to fight for -- we need to overturn the trade agreements

and to protect union jobs. All of which are under attack from the right wing.

On all of these issues we see too little propaganda by the Democrats and a flood of

right wing propaganda.

[dkf]

35. I think all jobs in the US should pay livable wages and be desired by some American worker.

The excuse that we don't want these jobs gives certain people the argument that we should flood the market with cheap labor from other countries. We complain that our jobs are going overseas then say we don't want the ones we have here. WTH. We will never win the outsourcing argument that way.

[fascisthunter]

16. it's what the well-off wants you to believe

[blindpig]

24. Nationalism is a disease

To frame the issue as citizens vs immigrants is reactionary. People have a human right to work, that they may eat. The government could create all the jobs needed if it wished, as was done during the New Deal.That it does not must be for deference to Capital, which likes a lot of unemployment to drive down wages.

[Lost4words]

31. I dont think its that simple, this is not a one answer problem!

[Skittles]

3. Where the hell is their outrage?

gone with the wind

[Berserker]

6. Extended unemployment benefits

well we as a company have tried to employ over 400 people in Wisconsin on unemployment benefits and they do not seem to want to work. They are happy to just collect the money. So what should we think?

[Skittles]

10. 400 in Wisconsin does not represent the nation

[defendandprotect]

14. 400 people and no takers . . . hmmm....

None of them were '99'ers or anywhere near the end of their ability to collect?

None of them had only weeks left to collect?

None of them need health care benefits?

None of them were worried about unemployment insurance NOT being extended?

None of them needed jobs that paid what they were previously making?

None of them were aware that if GOP regained Congress benefits, unemployment insurance

and jobs in general would probably be totally disappeared?

400 people turned down your jobs -- ? What are we to think?



:eyes:

[CrownPrinceBandar]

20. What's the company's name?............

If they'd pay me a decent wage and relocation expenses, I'd take one of those 400 jobs.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

22. What kind of jobs? What kind of salary?

If I am getting X dollars while on unemployment, I would be nuts to give it up for a job that paid me less than those X dollars. I would stay put on enemployment and try to find the job that paid me the same X dollars, especially if I had a fammily to support or mortgage to pay.

[AmandaRuth]

25. So who is this we? I want to know the name of the company.

Was it an agriculture type of job that pays less than min wage? No way did you have 400 openings without one single applicant, unless it was a temp job that paid less than min. NO WAY, I just don't believe you. So what's the company? And where is the local press coverage about the 400 good paying benefited jobs that NO ONE will take?

[alstephenson]

26. Berserker, where'd you go???

You haven't answered any of the questions regarding your statement that your company "tried to employ over 400 people in Wisconsin on unemployment benefits". So your company specifically targeted people on unemployment benefits? Your statement doesn't pass the smell test - sorry but I think it's B.S.

[defendandprotect]

32. +1000% --

[Greyhound]

34. Details please. What jobs, what pay, what do you mean "they do not seem to want to work".

There's something fishy about this claim.

[AdHocSolver]

8. Jobs are scarce because practically everything we buy is made elsewhere.

Most money spent by Americans leaves the country to pay foreigners, not Americans. Most of the stimulus money that Americans spent to buy things left the country. Illegal aliens are not the main problem because if they live in the U.S., they spend money in the U.S.

The U.S. economic problem is due to the fact that the majority of the everyday goods that Americans buy such as clothes, shoes, appliances, electronics, tools, hardware, furniture, and hundreds of other items are made in other countries and the money spent provides jobs for foreigners, not Americans.

This is why the U.S. has such a huge trade deficit. Chinese workers don't pay U.S. income taxes or Social Security taxes. This is why governments in the U.S. are cutting services and neglecting infrastructure.

An economy requires money to circulate within the system. Spending most of our money on imports is like a hole in the radiator in a car. The coolant leaks out and the engine overheats and eventually quits.

While the need is to get rid of NAFTA, the WTO, the IMF, the World Bank, and the Federal Reserve, that is not about to happen anytime soon.

What Americans need to do is to refuse to buy imported goods. Demand that retailers supply American-made goods for sale.

Unfortunately, Americans are their own worst enemy. Americans can be suckered by the corporations to buy any imported, overpriced crap they are offered. Americans want those big-screen TV sets, big gas guzzlers, and those fancy do-everything telephones. Americans will spend their money till its gone and they have seen their jobs sent to the Far East. Then they will demand the government bail out Wall Street to preserve their "investments" in the stock market.

When it comes to economics, Americans have got to be the most ignorant people on the planet, including a lot of the people on DU.

Wall Street and the banks are not wealth creators, they are leeches. Wall Street is the corporations. They own the politicians. The system requires consumers and investors who are suckers in order to function and thrive. Unfortunately, such suckers are in the majority. They will support the corruption until they are no longer needed and they lose their jobs. Then they will defend their collusion with the system by claiming "How could we have known?".

Some of us on DU have posted this discussion for a long time now. The response is always the same. Meaningless graphs and statistics supporting the corporations, repeating of meaningless corporate buzzwords such as "free trade", and "global economy". I expect to see the usual crap about "that is the way the 'universe' works, and we can't change nature".

It seems like Americans are hopeless.

[upi402]

11. I swear... Death penalty for corporate media traitors

I'm livid over the media complicity in the conservative "blame the victim" crap!!!
I'm against the death penalty but sure as hell would make an exception here.

[defendandprotect]

15. Corporate money in the system ... Elected Officials "Under the Influence" . . .

Fair Elections Act -- Petition

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8739346

[fascisthunter]

17. Fuck NPR....

[defendandprotect]

33. That's exactly what the GOP did . . . quite a few decades ago -- !!!

And re PBS ....

They put a private company over them -- Corporation for Public Broadcasting

and cut their funds until there was nothing left --

ExxonMobil was also in there "saving them" ---- hmmm...

or, as we used to call it -- "Petroleum Broadcasting Company" --

of course, the auctions were also intended to do harm -- chase everyone away!

We need to do what Europeans do -- if I understand it correctly -- buy a license

every year -- no commercials, I think!?

Finance real "free speech" --

[LWolf]

21. k&r

[LiberalEsto]

23. Solution for unemployment

Just take away our meds.

When they wear off, we'll go kill ourselves.

Problem solved.

[autorank]

28. Excellent post - thank you!!!!!!!!! k*r

That's a great point - there are no jobs to be had no matter what the motivation.

Here's a chart to help people understand unemployment, the real level:

Real Levels of Unemployment - Shadow Government Statistics

Unemployment Percent

Official: 9.8%
U-6: 16%
SGS: 22%

[maryf]

29. K&R nt

[Lost4words]

30. because they have already written us off. we are lazy deadbeats

this angers me to a point of irrationality and makes me think in extreem violent terms toward those who believe such trash.


Line up for your urine test for drugs! Feel the love!

[defendandprotect]

36. kick --