Would it surprise you to find out that the unemployment rate in the USA is very different from what is reported by the mass media? Did you know that the government agency responsible for collecting unemployment information actually publishes a number of statistics around unemployment? There is not just one number, there are at least three. There are a number of ways that the government counts the unemployed. Here is a simple chart that shows the different ways that the unemployed are counted.
What are the real unemployment figures?
“The 7.7% unemployment rate is known as the “headline rate.” It is the rate you hear in the news. Its official designation is U.3.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics has another official unemployment rate known as U.6.
The difference is that U.3 does not include discouraged workers who are not currently actively seeking a job. (A discouraged worker is a person who has given up looking for a job because there are no jobs to be found.) The U.6 measure includes workers who have been discouraged for less than one year. The U.6 rate of unemployment is 14.4%, about double the headline rate.
The U.6 rate does not include long-term discouraged workers, those who have been discouraged for more than one year. John Williams estimates this rate and reports the actual rate of unemployment (known as SGS) in November to be 22.9%.
In other words, the headline rate of unemployment is one-third the actual rate. “
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33268.htm
If the government can lie and make things up and report ‘officially’ that numbers are very different from real life, truth and common sense, what does that mean for other things that are even more crucial or life and death matters? What else is the mass media lying about?
Global Corporations And The 1%; Art And Science Of Deception http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/p/corporations-art-and-science-of.html
Why would these politicians and huge global corporations lie to their employees, viewers, listeners and readers? In the case of politicians, it is easy to figure out. They want to give the public the ‘appearance’ that everything is good, so that they and/or their party will be re-elected. If the numbers look good, why not put them back in office and give them another couple of years?
Since most politicians are ‘owned’ or bought by corporations that put them into office within the Dualopoly, they do and say what the corporations tell them to do and say. If corporations tell their minions to say the moon is made of cheese, the next day, you would hear those same politicians tell you over and over again, that the moon is made of Swiss cheese.
In the case of mass media, which is owned by huge global corporations, the reasons for the lies about employment figures are a little harder to figure out. But underneath all of the ‘appearance’ that everything is rosy and peachy, what happens if the public starts to figure out that free market Capitalism (controlled and run by the 1% at the top) is not all that good for them, and that actually, other things may work much better?
What happens if people find out that other systems such as bottoms up Democracy, Socialism and Communism may be doing much, possibly better financially and in other ways?
The unemployment rate in Germany is 6.5% (Socialist), assuming that they are not lying about it.
http://www.tradingeconomics.com/germany/unemployment-rate
The unemployement rate is 3.1% for Switzerland.
http://www.tradingeconomics.com/switzerland/unemployment-rate
The unemployment rate in Communist China is even lower at 4.1%, assuming that they are not lying about it.. http://www.tradingeconomics.com/china/unemployment-rate
Unemployment rates for Iceland, Netherlands, Austria and Norway are provided above, and they all range from 3-5.5%.
Why is the US suffering from a 25% unemployment rate? Could it have something to do with the fact that corporations have been exporting jobs out of the US for the last 20 years, with no letup in sight?
Could it have something to do with the fact that the US still has 3 foreign worker visa programs on the books, (H-1B, H-1B1 and E-3) which allows and encourages US based corporations to ‘import’ foreign workers on a visa work program? Corporations are replacing US workers with temporary foreign workers, because these foreign workers get no benefits, have no rights and cannot join or form a union, plus they most often work for 50% of the pay of an equivalent US worker.
Corporations argue that they cannot ‘find’ this labor within the USA, but the odds of not being able to find a worker with a 25% unemployment rate are astronomical, in ANY skill category. Every foreign worker coming into the US that takes a job, displaces a US worker. How many foreign workers are in the US, under the auspices of these 3 visa work programs?
Now let’s take a look at the ‘right to work’ laws being passed by Republicans across the USA. These laws give the corporations the right to hire anyone or fire anyone at any time and to have non union workers working right next to union workers, without getting the same pay. In other words, it is just like the foreign worker visa program, only for US workers.
The right to work laws are another ploy and strategy to bust unions. The middle class is largely supported by unions, but the numbers of union workers has been steadily declining under the relentless attack by corporations bent on breaking them, and/or exporting all jobs that pertain to unions.
Union jobs have steadily been exported to Communist China or Communist Vietnam. Is it any wonder that Communism is no longer mentioned negatively in the mass media corporate controlled news? Is it any wonder that Communism is no longer considered evil? (Communist China is now the US most favored trading nation.) Is it any wonder that the war on Communism has been forgotten completely?
Republicans and Libertarians are against unions, calling them Communist plots or conspiracies. However, under their belief in the free market, unions have just as much right to ‘organize’ as corporations do to ‘organize’ their structure. Why would a free market allow ONLY corporations to ‘organize’ laws, regulations, buy off politicians, own the mass media, and form legal structures that allow them to pay no taxes, import foreign workers, and collect corporate welfare, while at the same time making record profits? If a free market is truly free, it would allow and promote worker led organizations on an equal basis with corporate led organizations.
Why would this free market NOT allow workers who work inside of these corporations and who produce all of these profits for these same corporations, to NOT organize their own structures? In the corporate view of the world, unions and/or worker owned corporations are Communist and ‘evil’.
Yet, at the same time, corporations have no problem exporting all possible US jobs to Communist China, which interestingly enough, does not allow unions either. Why are unions evil Communists in the US, but Communists are best friends and trading partners in China?
The US ‘right to work’ legal structure also allows workers the ‘right’ to work for less than minimum wage. In other words, if a worker is desperate enough in these tough economic times, he can accept a wage of $2.00 per hour in some US states, plus any ‘commissions’ he may make due to sales or tips. This sounds much like workers in 3rd world countries, doesn’t it?
Corporations are now pitting workers in 3rd world countries directly against US workers, under much the same conditions. The only thing standing between them importing millions of foreign workers and having them work for $1 a day, is the few unions that are left who lobby on behalf of all workers in the US
Once those few unions are gone, huge global corporations will have an open field and unlimited workers to divide and conquer, forcing them to work as slaves, quite literally, just to stay alive. After all, in a ‘free market’ where only corporations have any influence and workers have no rights or influence, what prevents any corporation from forcing wages downward to one penny per day, by pitting one worker against another globally, for the ‘right to work’?
So what is good about the ‘right to work’? It sounds more like legalized slavery. At least back in the slave days, slaves also got benefits, such as housing, food, clothing, healthcare, transportation, etc. Now, the modern day ‘right to work’ slaves get NO benefits, and are replaced if they choose not to show up for the ‘right to work’ for $2 per hour with no benefits.
Another root cause of the high unemployment rate inside the USA is that raw resources in the USA are exported directly to foreign countries that convert them into finished products with foreign labor, instead of domestic local labor inside the USA. As one example, Switzerland, which has a low unemployment rate, requires that all raw products or resources be converted to finished products before being exported. In other words, raw logs cannot be exported. They must have labor added to them inside the Switzerland before the finished products are exported. This creates a huge number of jobs. The US has not figured this out yet, and allows other foreign nations to act as ‘parasites’ on the US labor market.
The US has a draconian system of laws and regulations that end up putting a record number of people into jail for perceived ‘offenses’. The US has the highest number of people per capita in prison, compared to any other large nation, including Communist China and Russia. The effect of the anti drug laws is to drag a huge amount of money and resources that could be used to train workers and create jobs into a system of punishment and systems that do the opposite of creating jobs.
Prison Mistakes, Prison Reform; via A Green Road
http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/03/prison-mistakes-prison-reform.html
US ranks 5th in Executions With Iraq, China, And Russia; via A Green Road http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/03/us-ranks-5th-in-executions-ahead-of.html
Death Penalty For 13 Executions Cost 4 BILLION Dollars; via A Green Road http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/09/death-penalty-for-13-executions-cost-4.html
Cruel And Unusual Punishment Alive And Well In The US Prison System; via A Green Road
http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/11/cruel-and-unusual-punishment-alive-and.html
2012; Torture And Renderings Still Legal In The USA; via A Green Road http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/05/2012-torture-and-renderings-still-legal.html
Knowing all of the above, is it any wonder that the US has one of the highest unemployment rates in the civilized world? But there is a way to create millions of jobs.. and here is just one way..
GREEN NEW DEAL; How To End Global Unemployment; via A Green Road http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/10/green-new-deal-how-to-end-global.html
The REAL Unemployment Rate, Compared To Myth Portrayed On Mass Media, via A Green Road http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/12/what-is-real-unemployment-rate-compared.html
AGR Free Press 
The rate of unemployment presented should be very accurate at all times. We cannot strike the culprit if the target is blurry. Having a protection like income insurance is good enough bu striking the main enemy is something that should be dealt with seriously.
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