BY KEVIN SAWYER – According to President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, 83% of American men of working age (25-54) are out of work. While the government tells everyone that the unemployment rate is under 5% (that means full employment to them) the real actual unemployment rate in the country is anywhere from 17%-22% or higher. To put that in perspective, the real unemployment rate in America during the Great Depression was a staggering 25%.
The politicians can lie and bluster all they want to but it doesn’t change the fact that millions of working age men that want to work can’t find a decent job. Sure, Obama blathers on about the low unemployment rate and how his administration is all for the working class. But, again, if one looks closer one will discover that since Obama has been president only two things have happened on that front. One, the only real jobs being created since the Crash of ’08 have been extreme low level jobs. There’s plenty of work out there for waiters and bartenders. The second is that Obama may likely be the only president in American history in which the country’s economy didn’t grow at least 3% in any year in which he was president.
Today, right now, over 100 million working age Americans have no jobs and one out of every five Americans under the age of 35 are living with their parents. Twenty percent of the last two generations can’t even find work enough to get out on their own. During the Crash of ’08, most American businesses and corporations took advantage of the situation to shed workers. Most got rid of pretty much all workers over the age of 50 thinking they could hire younger workers for less money. Experience and acquired skills meant nothing. Only the bottom line meant anything. Teenagers and young 20 somethings, too, were squeezed out. If you are over 50 and under 25, you don’t really have much of a chance at finding any manner of substantial work.
Unlike the 1960’s, where 99% of working age men had good jobs, The United States no longer really has any sort of manufacturing base. It has all been outsourced to countries that use, what might be called, slave labor. There was once a vibrant middle class in America but no longer. A middle class is needed in any sort society for stability. The middle class supports both the rich and the poor and its natural buffer is necessary to any country’s economic success. It is when a society only has two classes left, the rich and the poor, that trouble occurs.
The Wall Street Journal has recently reported that this is the worst economic recovery since 1949. Of course, the economy of the world picked because of World War Two so it becomes even that more glaring a statistic. Many think raising the minimum wage is the answer. These, of course, are people who have no understanding of business. Wages go up, prices go up. There is no gain but so many just don’t understand that simple Business 101 principle. Aside from the loss of a manufacturing base, or substantial service sector jobs that can provide a decent living, technology has reared its ugly head to replace workers by the many thousands.
Most people seem to hail all of this robot technology as a great human achievement until they discover one day that they no longer have a job to go to. A robot is doing their job now. A robot that a company doesn’t have to pay or provide any manner of benefits to.
What a great achievement…
PHOTO CREDITS: Reuters / Shadowstats.com