STAFF NEWS & ANALYSIS
The Long, Slow Slide Toward Prosperity
By Staff News & Analysis - May 06, 2013

Long-term unemployment is one of the most vexing problems the U.S. faces, and today's jobs report shows all-too-meager progress in fixing it. The U.S. created 165,000 new jobs in April, pushing down the unemployment rate to 7.5 percent from March's 7.6 percent. But as of the end of April, 4.4 million Americans, or 37 percent of the unemployed, had been without a job for 27 weeks or longer, barely better than March's 39 percent. The U.S. can't afford to write off more than 4 million people who would like to work but haven't for more than six months. – Bloomberg

Dominant Social Theme: Something must be done, but what?

Free-Market Analysis: We have titled this article "The Long, Slow Slide Toward Prosperity" even though that doesn't seem to make much sense, certainly not in the context of this Bloomberg article.

But we will explain shortly. First, more about the article. It is just one of many that Bloomberg seems to churn out as required that deal with the "crisis of capitalism" in a sympathetic yet infuriating way.

Infuriating because it cites the deplorable state of the US economy without ever explaining the real reasons why or proposing a serious solution that can actually alleviate what's gone wrong.

Here's more from the article:

Long-term joblessness peaked in April 2010 at 6.7 million, so the picture might seem to be improving. Hidden within that number is this troubling fact: The average unemployed person has been out of work for 36.5 weeks. That's not much better than the December 2011 duration of 40.7 weeks, which was the longest since World War II. Long-term unemployment at the start of the recession in December 2007 was 1.3 million people, and the average duration was 16.6 weeks.

Terrible things happen to people when they are out of work for long periods, numerous studies show. Beyond a sharp drop in income, long-term unemployment is associated with higher rates of suicide, cancer (especially among men) and divorce. The children of the long-term unemployed also show an increased probability of having to repeat a grade in school.

There is less agreement on why so many people have been out of work for so long. Democrats generally point to the anemic recovery, in which weak demand for goods and services results in less hiring. The cyclical nature of unemployment, they say, can be addressed with more government stimulus.

Republicans tend to focus more on structural problems, in which the education and experience levels of the unemployed don't match what employers say they want in job candidates. More government spending, they say, would be a waste of money because it won't close the skills gap. Some Republicans also think that extended unemployment benefits are a disincentive to job hunters …

Finding out what works is crucial. Other solutions should be tried, including giving preference to the long-term unemployed when filling federal government jobs. In addition, President Barack Obama should ask Congress to approve tax breaks for companies that hire the long-term unemployed.

Work-share programs, in which employees accept reduced hours when demand is slack in exchange for unemployment insurance to compensate for lost wages, has worked in other countries. The U.S. should also experiment with state-based clearinghouses that connect employers with job-seekers in other states and subsidize the moving expenses.

The U.S. is in dire danger of having a permanent class of long-term unemployed. It has to do better.

You see? There is nothing reported in this article that definitively addresses the real problem. And the conclusion of the article is even worse! It pretends that the US is a person not a statement of regional geography and decides this description on a map "has to do better."

We do not agree that a geographical location has to do better. We are of the opinion that PEOPLE have to do better.

Start with the people running central banks and those globalists that stand behind them. These people need to have a change of heart and to admit that their current strategy of grinding the West into dust in order to foster globalism may end up in catastrophe.

Meanwhile, the average person needs to understand that unemployment is not his or her fault but is an evident and obvious result of the way the system has been constructed.

When you constantly devalue currency via booms and busts, thus causing endless bankruptcies and further centralization of industry, you deplete available jobs. When you then via taxes and regulation ensure that people cannot better their lot in life, you ensure the status quo will be an increasingly disastrous one.

So why do we write about the "Long, Slow Slide to Prosperity"?

Because the system as it is currently constituted probably cannot stand as it is in this Era of the Internet. The globalist impulse and strategy were formulated pre-Internet, but 'Net information has thoroughly exposed it.

While not everyone understands, probably enough do. The system is designed to be perpetually unstable but it was not designed to be analyzed and penetrated as it has been.

When so many are miserable, when so many are out of work and have no hope of re-employment, society itself – and the very culture – must come under sustained attack. The current environment must give way to something worse and then … gradually or suddenly … something BETTER.

Yes, things probably will have to get worse. In fact, no amount of education or training can stem the inevitable, grinding downturn. Eventually, people won't stand for it. They'll understand enough to want to overturn it.

The powers-that-be no doubt understand this possibility. We sense they have reversed course to a degree and are working within limits to stabilize the very societies that the current system has destabilized.

But more freedom, less regulation, sound money and fewer taxes are a recipe for increased wealth in the 21st century, as in the past. Unfortunately, the best the Bloomberg article can come up with is increased training and "re-education." Re-education for what?

After Thoughts

It won't be enough.

Posted in STAFF NEWS & ANALYSIS
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