great post

once again...

#1 Today there are 88 million working age Americans that are not employed and that are not looking for employment. That is an all-time record high.

#2 When Barack Obama was elected, the percentage of unemployed Americans that had been out of work for more than 52 weeks was less than 15%. Today, it is above 30%.

#3 There are 1.2 million fewer jobs in America today than there were when Barack Obama was inaugurated.

#4 When Barack Obama first took office, the number of "long-term unemployed workers" in the United States was approximately 2.6 million. Today, that number is sitting at 5.6 million.

#5 The average duration of unemployment in the United States is hovering close to an all-time record high.

#6 During the Obama administration, worker health insurance costs have risen by 23 percent.

#7 Since Barack Obama has been president, the average price of a gallon of gasoline in the United States has increased by 90 percent.

#8 Since Barack Obama has been president, home values in the United States have declined by another 13 percent.

#9 Under Barack Obama, new home sales in the U.S. set a brand new all-time record low in 2009, they set a brand new all-time record low again in 2010, and they set a brand new all-time record low once again during 2011.

#10 Since Barack Obama took office, the number of Americans living in poverty has risen by more than 6 million.

#11 Since Barack Obama entered the White House, the number of Americans on food stamps has increased from 32 million to 46 million.

#12 The amount of money that the federal government gives directly to Americans has increased by 32 percent since Barack Obama entered the White House.

#13 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the percentage of Americans living in "extreme poverty" is now sitting at an all-time high.

#14 When Barack Obama first took office, an ounce of gold was going for about $850. Today an ounce of gold costs more than $1700 an ounce.

#15 Since Barack Obama became president, the size of the U.S. national debt has increased by 44 percent.

#16 During Barack Obama's first two years in office, the U.S. government added more to the U.S. national debt than the first 100 U.S. Congresses combined.

#17 During the Obama administration, the U.S. government has accumulated more debt than it did from the time that George Washington took office to the time that Bill Clinton took office.

#18 The U.S. national debt has been increasing by an average of more than 4 billion dollars per day since the beginning of the Obama administration....when Kardashian became president unemployment stood at 6.5%...he wanted the job and has made everything worse...and lastly...HE INHERITED A TRIPLE A RATING !!!

uhuh,, just ONE Man

all the results of the economic collapse that began BEFORE He came are squarely his doing,,,,



its THE ECONOMY STUPID (quoting a rhoades scholar, not making a personal statement)

Agree.. Competition ....good for the waistline!!

thank you

I was hoping to ignite more conversation about solutions instead of the tiresome and endless blame and doom threads,,,,

how do you find solutions without exploring the reasoning behind the problems?

just ignore it and pretend someone can wave a magic wand and fix it..

we go over the 'reasons' to the point of exhaustion

there are a half dozen threads a day with peoples opinions of the 'why'

they usually just take the form of some person or groups 'fault'

I think we have exhausted every opinion of whose 'fault' it is, and Im more interested now in how to fix it,,,

for solutions...do yourself a favor and check out Milton Friedman...also...it's very hard for the economy to grow when almost 400,000 people a week...sign up for unemployment...and...95,000 homes a month go under ( including mine )...my company went under in 2010...I worked there 17 years making six figures...and now...I make $11.00 an hour, but I have Blue Cross / Blue Shield...

For more solutions vote "none of the above" (unless Ron Paul is on the ballot!)

intereting

My first post in this thread clearly states that fixing the trade deficit is priority number 1.

When you import $50 billion more a month than you export it can't create jobs.

There is no way a country of 300 million has to buy more from somewhere else than can sell to the 7 billion in the rest of the world.

The data is clear. As we started a decline in trade surpluses to trade deficits wages began to stagnate.

Manufacturing jobs began to disappear to service related jobs filled the void.

Here is a list of the highest paying jobs in the US..

http://www.careerinfonet.org/oview5.asp?Level=Overall

Count from number 1 until you get to the first job that isn't service industry sector..

I understand the point about trade but dont understand the relevance of the link

can you reference a time when a manufacturing wage was higher than a medical or technical wage?

Macroecomonimcs is not for the bleeding , I mean faint of heart Invictus....

the list is relevant because it shows the highest paying jobs don't produce anything.

providing a service is not producing a tangible good.

production of goods requires capital investment and capital investment employs people that produce the goods and materials required to make the product.

a single manufacturing company not only employs the people that work at their plant they help employ people that work to produce the machines and materials they need to make their products.

I work in the manufacturing sector and I see the amount of other companies that we rely on to provide us the materials we need to produce and sell our products.


How many indirect jobs do lawyers or doctors create?

jailers and morticians don't count

I am trying.. I really am..

ok. I see that the medical technological fields pay the most as they always have. I just didnt connect with the list any indications on what they 'produce' in terms of jobs.

I do agree more manufacturing jobs are needed to boost us nationally

I wasn't alive in the 50s, but I am fairly certain that the family doctor didn't make that much money. People didn't go to the doctor or hospital because they had a sore throat. Now if someone stubs their toe they are off to the emergency room.

I told you before I am involved in the local community college. Out of an enrollment of roughly 7500 full and part time students 70% are majoring in some sort of medical program. The engineering department had 14 full time and 7 part time students.

That is ridiculous.

I was alive in the 50's and you are correct ...On a brighter note and just for you Invictus, the economics of globalisation are a changin... AND....they are changing fast! ...
Low wage is not the only consideration when US plants move their manufacturing off shore, but it is a very big one....As emerging economies boom, wages skyrocket....Between 2005 and 2010, China's wages increased by 69%....If wages for emerging economies like China continue to increase at a rate of 15 to 17% a years while rate increases in US remain slow, sometime between 2015 and 2020 US manufacturers will be indifferent to the wage consideration....
Other things are also influencing a new, almost imperceptable, trend of keeping manufacturing at home.....One example is inventory costs......Because we import so much from countries like China, wholesalers are forced to keep at least a 100 day supply of goods in inventory...This is very costly....
Foreign money appreciating against the dollar is another consideration...

So Happy 4th of July Invictus and God Bless America!!!

its true, things have changed

women werent working in the numbers they are now, neither were minorities, we had Half the population we do now and not nearly the same age demographics

doctors had an average wage of 12480
http://www.aafp.org/afp/2000/1215/p2571.html


while the average income in general was 3210
http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/1950s.html


compared to the average physician salary now of 150000
http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2010/06/doctors-money-people.html

compared to the average income in general of about 40000
http://bud-meyers.blogspot.com/2012/05/two-income-households-mean-and-median.html


they had almost four times the average income then
and they have almost four times the average income now


things have GROWN, but their relation to other things has remained consistent


however, we do need job growth, especially for those without the intellectual capacity or financial means or network to pursue 'higher education' and

we need to revamp education to be more of an ends tested institution (held to a higher expectation of PREPARING people to truly find jobs and be able to support themself in the world)

I also wanted to point out the very real employment consideration

sometimes people wont choose 'community' colleges , particularly for highly technical fields, because those employers are often having a preference for people who went to schools KNOWN for their training in technology,,,,