From Jim Pethokoukis.
The takeaway (for me, at least): the Administration is going to do it’s damndest to cook the books leading up to the 2012 election. It’s goal is to then argue that things are going in the right direction — that steady improvement is being made as we recover from the Bush mess — and that therefore it would be both dangerous (and a bit racist, too, naturally) to change economic stewards just as Obama’s grand plan to bring back jobs by pulling ever more money out of the private sector and packaging it up for cronies and union bosses, is beginning to revitalize America for the 99%.
— Which is why it is crucial that “our” side point out the Magical Shrinking Labor Force. As Pethokoukis notes, “The participation rate fell from an already low 64.2 percent to 64.0 percent. In a strong jobs recovery, that number should be rising as more people look for work. If the the labor force participation rate were back at its January 2009 level, the U-3 rate would be 11.0 percent.
The dirty little secret leftists don’t want you to know — even as they rely on it, in times when they need to point to economic growth — is that a free market system (and we still have a partial one) is always straining to grow, and so will often find ways to do so even as “progressives” work to pen it in and direct it toward wealth and job creation in their preferred client sectors.
So it is that any job recovery or economic boomlet is going to be a result of the market finding a seam to pressure — acting against attempts by progressives / Marxists / statists to control it the way they’d like.
That this Administration, therefore, has to rely on a shrinking labor force number to produce drops in unemployment is an enormous indictment of their policies — and speaks more to the dire straits we actually find ourselves in (recall, the economy is always straining to grow) than it does any effectiveness of Democrat policy.
If the only way you can show economic progress in the jobs numbers is to take people out of the labor force, what you have done is managed to stifle the free market economy in such a way that its naturally tendencies are being purposefully and repulsively undercut.
Progressives are, in this way, like anti-free market cat wranglers. And like deranged shut-ins, they think the way to live is in a house full of cats they control entirely.
You are free to complete the extended metaphor yourselves. But if I may make a suggestion, you might want to use the following tools to do so: litter box, hairball, hoarder, stacks of newspaper, found dead with eyes eaten out, catnip, fish / parakeets.
Enjoy.
As Allah quipped, how many more people would have to quit looking for work to get the unemployment rate down to five percent?
Pablo – from NPR’s Planet Money comment section:
We’ve cut two guys from our warehouse in the last few months – and then eliminated our warehouse (we’re using the back of one of our stores for that now). Let a guy go from each store (two). Husband works 6 days a week. Store is closed on Sunday or I wouldn’t see him then either. Oh, and sunk every penny into employee salaries and stock. It’s honestly such a struggle to see if we can make it till 2012.
So, what I’m saying- from where I sit – no improvement.
But then I’m a racist bitter clinger, so perhaps my vision is clouded?
The jobless numbers need to go up by two before things start getting better — provided they’re the right two.
Ya think?
Your business struggles seem to be like a variant on Tip O’Neill’s aphorism, “all politics is local” Carin, though substituting economic weather for politics. Just, if you all were in North Dakota, or Texas, say, instead of Michigan, the health of your business would be better. Which in turn, kind of gives the lie to national averages as meaningful aggregates on the level of actual human beings. Or maybe another manifestation of one of Bastiat’s seen and unseen distinctions, at the underlying causal level.
Well, Detroit (and the metro area) are ground zero for dem politics. we’ve been steeped in this shit for a lot longer.
and we cannot move. We’re underwater on TWO mortgages.
sucks.
Obama has to go real people are getting hurt
And, I have friends all over the country who are struggling similarly. People who have been unemployed for YEARS now. Those with businesses that are just trying to hold on.
Even in Texas.
The monthly employment report is just a snapshot. The household data comes from a survey of 60,000. Have you ever known anyone who participated in the survey? The establishment data comes from 375,000 businesses. Moreover, the high-profile data is adjusted. Look for big changes in the next two reports. The annual recalibration of adjustments will impact the December figures (released in January) and all of the adjusted data going back five years. Beginning with January’s report (released in February), the figures will reflect new population numbers from the 2010 census but the reports prior to January’s will not be adjusted (so, apples/oranges).
Were the labor force the same size as when SCOAMF took over, U-3 rate would be 11.0%.
When people tell you the unemployment rate got better, tell them that the city of Pittsburgh just quit looking for work.
Anybody that thinks they can control a cat is more delusional than deranged, but your point is still spot on.
Just popped over from an Ace link, see what it felt like. Pretty good. I’ll be back.
Meanwhile Andy Stern is getting his facism on.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204630904577056490023451980.html
I think we can all agree that the numbers are bullshit. Hell, even if we took them at face value, they still suck. I mean, are we really going to throw a party because unemployment is only eight and a half percent?
No, what bothers me is that for as many people who are pissed off about being out of work, or having their kids move back in because they can’t find work, or staying in some terrible job because they can’t find an alternative, there’s gotta be just as many people who are resigned (or worse — happy) to live on the handouts promised by the Left.
Pride and principles are just too damned expensive for some.
Dude.
You got linked AND quoted.
By Ace.
Which horseman of the apocalypse was responsible for that?
Pestilence – War and Famine are busy right now. Death is not taking any new work on either.