Jobs! President Obama has set a record. In his speech to Congress on Tuesday, he uttered the word "jobs" more than in any of his previous four State of the Union addresses. His 45 mentions were more than double the references to any of the other policy ambitions encapsulated in his speech by such words as health, education, immigration, guns, deficit, debt, energy, climate, economy, Afghanistan, wage, spend or tax (the runner-up).
If only the president's record on unemployment were as good.
After four years America remains in a jobs depression as great as the Great Depression. But the crisis isn't seen in that light because the country isn't confronted daily by scenes of despair like the 1930s photographs of bread lines and soup kitchens and thousands of men (very few women then) waiting all day outside a factory in a forlorn quest for work.
But the jobless are still in the millions across the land, little changed in their total since the 1930s: 12.3 million today officially fully unemployed compared with 12.8 million in 1933 at the depth of the Depression.
Yes, the U.S. population is much larger now, but 12 million out of work still means 12 million lives devastated. And that number masks the true vastness of the modern disaster.
The jobless today are much less visible than they were in the 1930s because relief is organized differently. Today in the "recovery," the millions are being assisted, out of sight, by government checks, unemployment checks, Social Security disability checks and food stamps.
More than 48 million Americans are in the food-stamp program—an almost incredible record. That is 15% of the total population compared with the 7.9% participation in food stamps from 1970-2000. Then there are the more than 11 million Americans who are collecting Social Security checks to compensate for disability, also a record. Half have signed on since President Obama came to office. In 1992, there was one person on disability for every 35 workers; today it is one for every 16.
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3 comments:
With our current president, the job situation in the U.S. is becoming more & more DEPRESSING people and it's only going to get worse! It's no longer a matter of how intelligent and well-educated you are, or "WHAT" you know that matters in obtaining a job, it's now a matter of "WHO" you know!
For those that are currently unemployed, I would suggest getting yourself out there and knocking on doors, as well as networking with as many people as you possibly can on a daily basis in order to have better luck getting a job.
Applying for jobs advertised in the classifieds is almost pointless these days and your resume usually ends up in a "black hole" or the circular file.
Oh he sounds good. Problem is all he does is give lip service and those who just adore him (read MSM) never question the reality.
Obama illustrates why guys like Chriss Angel and David Copperfield are so popular.Think about it.
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