Friday, April 15, 2011

The Indicators Are Down



Following Barack Obama's Marxian declaration that every man, woman, and child in America (or recently arrived in America) should expect to have their basic needs funded by taxpayers, a new report has been released showing that only 45% of Americans even have jobs.

That's the lowest number in nearly 30 years...and as the hapless husband in today's cartoon notes, only 66% of American men have jobs, which is the lowest number on record. And last month the overall rate of unemployment "unexpectedly" rose yet again, reminding us that the media doesn't really understand what the word "unexpectedly" means.

Obviously, this suggests that the government should do everything in its power to encourage job growth...so that's exactly the opposite of what Barack Obama is doing.

Instead, the alleged president is pledging to raise taxes on businesses, job creators, and investors, thereby assuring that the job numbers will get even worse. And he's resisting any efforts to cut government spending on entitlement programs, meaning the fewer and fewer people who are working will have to take care of more and more people who either aren't...or won't.

You don't need to be an expert economist to understand that when most people in America aren't working, we're a nation that's on the wrong side of the bell curve...and we're sliding down a slippery slope towards becoming irrelevant on the world stage.


The only way to avoid disaster is if America's politicians...in both parties...finally get serious about real spending cuts and fiscal responsibility. Since Barack Obama and the Democrats are clearly uninterested and unserious, Hope n' Change is starting to warm to the idea of not raising the Debt Ceiling, despite politicians' and economists' warnings of apocalypse.

Metaphorically speaking, there's nothing quite like pulling the pin out of an economic grenade to finally get everyone's attention.

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Bonus: From the Hope n' Change Gift Shoppe, an April 15th mini-poster (click for larger size).

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25 comments:

John the Econ said...

It's almost as though Obama actually wants us to become just like Greece:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703385404576258422215326318.html

A failed state where a minority of criminal but highly motivated political operatives wish to subjugate the helpless citizenry as they bring about the elitist utopia while what is left of the former establishment watches helplessly...

Joaquin said...

Apocalypse my ass!
TARP was needed to stop an apocalypse.
Stymulus billions were needed to avert another apocalypse.
GM had to be bailed out to stop an American automotive apocalypse.
Shhh what was that? Oh nothing............ but a boy crying wolf.

Suzy said...

The saddest thing is our country is falling for this trash.....because for many of the ones not working, it involves a free paycheck.

The only way to get a fair voting mechanism going, honestly, is to ban welfare for everyone but the truly incapacitated. I mean, really, McDonalds is still hiring (I saw a sign in the window the other day) and at least its a way to earn your bread....and work up to other things if you have a mind to. People have this idea that if they can't find a job that gives them enough for a $250,000 home plus insurance and benefits, that they "don't have a job"....its time for people to drop the pride and use American innovation to earn their bread and stop collecting a taxpayer check each month.

Stilton Jarlsberg said...

@John the Econ- Personally, I do believe that Obama wants to bring down the country as we've known it and, especially, punish "the rich."

A couple of years ago, when it was pointed out that raising taxes on "the rich" would result in less incoming revenue to spend on the poor, he said he'd do it anyway because it would be "more fair." So it's all about some truly perverse idea of "justice" in his head in which the poor can be punished as long as the rich are punished more.

He doesn't want economic equality...he wants revenge.

@Joaquin- Yes, it seems like Apocalypse warnings go up every time this administration wants to grab our wallets. Regarding the Debt Ceiling, there are plenty of conservatives who are also saying that there will be disastrous consequences if we don't raise it...but I can't help but think that the politicians would actually work to cut spending in the face of such a disaster. I don't doubt that there would be significant financial pain...but it might fend off the real and inevitable crash that America can't recover from if nothing is done.

@Suzy- What ever happened to the idea of a "starter job"? A young person takes a job flipping burgers not to support themselves (or a family), but to earn money and create a work record. If they do well, they have a resume credit that helps them get a better paying job. And so on and so on.

When unemployment benefits pay more than minimal employment, and when there's no social stigma to being unemployed, there's simply no reason for many people to break out of the entitlement trap.

Jim Hlavac said...

Ah yes, Both Parties, without doubt = Royalty without the ermine. The elected living off the taxpayers, too, in the biggest welfare scam of them all. Both parties, at every level of government. The Democrats filled with socialists, as we know. While the Republicans are filling up with theocrats, as we all should be worried. I'm not so sure that the Republican elites want to fix anything anymore, either. $39 Billion in legerdemain "cuts"? That's it?

Because it seems the economy is not the biggest problem. No. For when nearly every Republican presidential contender troops off to listen to the lunatics Bryan Fischer of "Americans for Family Values" and Tony Perkins of the "Family Research Council" speak of how the very biggest threat to the nation and its people is us gay folks, I truly worry for the nation. These two want to spend billions to round us all up and incarcerate us and force a "cure" upon us. This is rational? We're the ones working, we can't get no stinkin' welfare. This is whom potential presidents are listening too? And dozens of state legislatures, in states broke beyond measure, spend weeks discussing the "threat" of gays instead of dealing with their budgets. Did you know Tennessee's Republicans are now wanting to outlaw the use of the word "gay"?; I just cringe at the stupidity. But I'll tell you this, if the Republican elites keep up the anti-gay crusade and make it a cornerstone of their campaign you're going to get Obama again. I know I couldn't vote for Trump, Newt or Huckabee if you paid me. I'll just sit it out. So will all of us, and our rather extended families we are not against.

Perhaps it's time to just get rid of the two parties and boost the Libertarians into office. Because the current crop of contenders is but weeds. Except maybe Palin and the very long shot Gary Johnson, former governor of New Mexico.

Pete(Detroit) said...

Jim, I'd like to see Jan Brewer and John Bolton get some attention - I think they'd be fine. I agree w/ your concern about theocrats. I mean, that works out so WELL in the Middle East...

I'd like a rule that if your income is dependent on the govt, you don't get to vote (exception - active Military) That way, we don't have ppl voting to boost their bene's / expand their departments...

Stilton Jarlsberg said...

@Jim Hlavac- I groan every time a Republican comes up with something so stupid and divisive. And not just because it plays into the hands of the Democrats.

Have our politicians really mastered essentials of budgeting and security to such a degree that they've got time on their hands to try to legislate subjective morality?

@Pete(Detroit)- I'd also like to see such voting restrictions. But I'm pro-choice on the matter: let people choose between government money and keeping their vote, and don't allow them to change that status for four years after declaration. That way they couldn't eschew benefits just long enough to cast a vote for (surprise!) more benefits.

TheOldMan said...

In my perfect world, every citizen still gets one vote but for every $x you get another vote (x = 10000 for example). Clearly there are some kinks in the idea such as what about homemaker spouse, typically wife, how do you split the extra household votes. The beauty of this is that the looters who claim that the high income folks don't pay taxes would be happy and the rest of us who know better would be able to control how our tax dollars are spent. Of course in my absolutely perfect world, I would be dictator but that's another dream...

WMD said...

In my perfect world, let the looters vote. Right after they pass a drug screen on the spot.

Angry Hoosier Dad said...

It doesn't matter to Obama how many people are out of work. The government will provide for it's citizens the same way the Soviet Union used to. Average folks get bare subsistence. The chosen elite are well taken care of. He sees this as possible because all money belongs to the government. All of it...every effing penney. What we "receive" is due to the good graces and largess of the government. If this turd isn't a pure socialist, what the hell is he?

drjim said...

I'm *finally* going back to work after almost 18 months.

Stilton Jarlsberg said...

@The Old Man- Something about the voting system has got to change. It's human nature for people to want to take whatever they can get for "free"...at least if they're unconstrained by any particular morality, from within or without. Which is currently the case.

@Angry Hoosier Dad- If Obama's strategy isn't pure socialism, then I'm missing something somewhere.

@drjim- Congratulations! Here's hoping that the work is satisfying, well-paying, and secure! Or, failing those qualities, that it at least doesn't involve septic tanks.

pryorguy said...

Let's cut to the chase...

I think Obama, George Soros and other American 'progressives/socialists' want this coutnry to fail as it is...so someone in their club can build it back as a European/socialist form of government! And, as one insignificant part of a GLOBAL COMMUNITY where American soverenty is a thing of the past, and when they rewrite the history books, future inhabitants of this once-great country will never even know that there actually was freedom in the world!
And, there will be one more communist country in the world, with sharia law keeping everyone in line!

OMG I think I just had a nightmare!

Pete(Detroit) said...

drjim
YAY YOU!!!!

Pete(Detroit) said...

Stilt! Check spam, please!
Thanx...

Andrew said...

The founding fathers originally set up requirements for a voter: over 25 (at a time many died well before that 'mature and seasoned' age; male; white; free; and a landowner. Worth noting:
They did not want impressionable inexperienced youngsters (no 'youth vote') and they wanted persons of substance with skin in the financial/political/tax-base games.

Chuck said...

@ drjim – CONGRATS! Based on your credentials, what the heck are you doing in “The People's Republik of Kaliforniastan”?!? (and we have near identical movies lists … if you add “2081”).

@pryorguy - I suspect that you are correct. And it is happening faster than I though possible! Either the fall happens before the 2012 elections, or Obama wins (to "finish the job" - in his own words - by hook or by crook), or the left takes control by force. Will the Military allow it? God, I hope not.

@Andrew - Interesting and valid points. Mature and have a stake in the outcome (beyond pure theft). I like it.

pryorguy said...

If you believe in the power of prayer to God...now is the time to pray for our country!

Chuck said...

Amen.

Jim Hlavac said...

@pryorguy -- sir, I pray every day. Trust me.

But thank you folks for seeing my point -- there's far more important stuff than us, you know.

Pete(Detroit) said...

Jim - Important - yes
It's for the CHIIIIILLLLLLLDDDDDRRRRREEEEEENNN!!!!!

James said...

Christian Fundementalism is at fault for Obamas popularity. Republicans are tied to it and it will kill them. Gays, Bisexuals, Transexuals, etc, will not vote Right while Republicans are trying to denounce their lifestyles on a biblical basis. People of other beliefs will not vote for a president who is contemptuous of them at best. And "New" christians will vote left to distance themselves from Fundementalism. There are exceptions, but they are rare.

And yet, if the next Republican candidate did NOT do any of those things, the party would be split in half.

Obama will get four more years, one way or another. Just grit your teeth, cross your fingers, and hope we get through it regardless.

Stilton Jarlsberg said...

@pryorguy- You've summarized my beliefs and fears quite neatly; I think Obama (and his backers) want to break this country into pieces and rebuild it along the lines you're describing.

@Pete(Detroit)- I checked the spam filter, but nothing was hiding in there. Nor have I nuked any comments. So...um...try again?

@James- I really hope you're wrong, and that Gays, Lesbians, Transsexuals or whomever can come to realize that "Republicans" don't all think with a single monolithic brain. Because as hard as it must be to align with a group whose membership is partly against you, that's got to be a superior choice to aligning with a group who, if left unchecked, will destroy this country for Gays and Straights.

Personally, I like for religion to stay well clear of politics...although it never hurts for people to pray for genuine wisdom when it comes to making decisions.

John the Econ said...

I am suspect of his desire to "punish the rich". Remember after all, that much of his campaign $$$ comes from people who by most any standard are considered "rich".

It's about more than just money.

JustaJeepGuy said...

@John,
Barack Hussein may not have a great desire to "punish the rich". He uses the rhetoric to pull in votes from those who really DO want to punish the rich. What puzzles me is, how does he get THOSE fools to not see that he's as rich as those he proposes to "punish"? Can those class-warfare types be that stupid? Oh, never mind...