Time shift or paradox reality~ USA no longer has unemployment.Now what?

Is it me, or does it seem just a little unusual that the US is now "allegedly" running out of unemployment?

Before you jump the gun and go posting before reading further, consider for a moment that congress and the senate recently gave them selves yet another pay raise, due to cost of living.

Yet the every day American has not heard a peep about a raise in the minimum wage since Clinton, and even he failed to give us that. All I see are more deep pocket money grubbing disaster captolists, yet again pulling the wool over Americas eyes by orchestrating another crisis.

Now they have robbed the people of the only security blanket they had in these hard times, and stole the money all those hard working people paid into for.

Good people.



Now what?!

For those fortunate enough to have some kind of personal saving, they may make it a little longer. But not the rest, those who have lived pay check to pay check, are now out in the cold, or will be when the little that is had runs out.

There is some thing wrong with this picture, "We the People" are being dooped and no one wants to stand up for themselves.

Well, tell me what it is you need some one do to, to get you to stand up, and I will do it. Have done it before, and those here that know me, will confirm.

I'm here for this community today, as I was 7 years ago in 03 when I first joined.

More importantly, because of the international community that ATS is, this really only applies to us Americans, with in ATS.

As the "New Guards" we must be vigilent for the next generation.

Surely if we do not hang together, we will hang seperately..

United We Stand, The Rest Is, Not An Option!





Let it be known, those who knew, tried.

Originally posted by ADVISOR
Before you jump the gun and go posting before reading further, consider for a moment that congress and the senate recently gave them selves yet another pay raise, due to cost of living.

I think the OP needs to check his facts before
basing his story on falsehoods.

Congress did NOT raise their salaries in 2010.

www.factcheck.org...

Cut employment, but certainly pay for wars.
Whoever still has some money coming in, it is getting taxed like crazy....till nothing is left

Alot of people may get off their rears and come forward to demand that they either get paid by calling off all this war stuff or TPTB step down forever....across the globe.

Worldwide, the annual cost for military "defense" is $1000 billion - that is 1 trillion dollars.

Last year, in 2009, the U.S. spent $742 billion on the military.

That's 75% of the total global expenditure.

This comes out to around $12 billion a month.

If you ask a representative of government how much of we-the-people's money is going for defense, depending on who you ask, you will get a variety of answers. These answer are more often than not in the form of percentages.

Such as:
4% of the GNP (gross national product) is spent on "National Security"
Oh, okay, well, that's not so bad, is it?

But even percentages can be startling:
54% of the Federal Budget = 4% of the GNP


What does the GNP have to do with Federal Military Spending, anyway?

Gross National Product (GNP) is the market value of all goods and services produced in one year by labor and property supplied by the residents of a country.

source

Federal Budget:

During FY 2009, the federal government collected approximately $2.1 trillion in tax revenue. Primary receipt categories included individual income taxes (43%), Social Security/Social Insurance taxes (42%), and corporate taxes (7%). Other types included excise, estate and gift taxes. Tax revenues have averaged approximately 18.3% of gross domestic product (GDP) over the past 40 years, generally ranging plus or minus 2% from that level.

source

US Military Budget at Wiki provides an in-depth breakdown of this spending.

The U.S. average national unemployment rate is 9.7 percent. Only those who are actively looking for work are included in this statistic. Among Black Americans, the rate is 15.5 percent and Latinos, 12.4 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Congressional Budget Office predicts that unemployment will remain almost unchanged in 2011, about 9.5 percent.

Many families have been surviving on small, weekly unemployment checks provided for 26 weeks by their state government, and an additional 73 weeks by the federal government. The first group of unemployed to run through both benefits hit that point Jul. 1, and today about a million people are receiving no assistance at all. About nine million more are still receiving unemployment payments.

Congress is considering extending federal assistance for another 20 weeks. The House approved the legislation, but the Senate did not. Congress left town for its holiday break until mid-July without passing the legislation.

In the Senate the issue fell almost precisely along party lines, with all but one Democrat for extending the benefit, and all but two Republicans against it, saying the 34- billion-dollar cost was not worth adding to the federal deficit.

source

According to the Department of Labor:

The average weekly unemployment insurance check is $292.
That's $1168 a month and $14,016 a year.

As of June, 2010, the national unemployment rate was 9.5%.
(but remember, this is only those who are actively looking for jobs who are registered with the DOL - an alternate way of counting puts it near 20%.)

The number of INITIAL unemployment claims for the week ending July 3, 2010 was 454,000.

President Obama's call last year for "shared sacrifice" doesn't extend to federal employees, at least based on the details of his administration's 2010 budget released this week.

At a time when the official unemployment rate is nearing double digits, and 6.35 million people are receiving unemployment benefits, the U.S. government is on a hiring binge.

Executive branch employment — 1.98 million in 2009, excluding the Postal Service and the Defense Department — is set to increase by 15.6 percent for the 2010 fiscal year. Most of that is thanks to the Census Bureau hiring 102,000 temporary workers, but not counting them still yields a net increase of 2 percent in one year.

There's little belt-tightening in evidence in Washington, D.C.: Counting benefits, the average pay per federal worker will leap from $72,800 in 2008 to $75,419 next year.

Meanwhile, according to Forbes' layoff tracker, there have been 558,087 layoffs since November 2008 at large public companies; even local school districts aren't immune. That's just a sliver of the total unemployed, which government data estimate to be 8.6 percent of the workforce, or an alternate method of reckoning that counts discouraged workers puts at 20 percent.

Some of the Feds' hiring increases have been stunning. If you look at the four-year period from 2006 to 2010, the number of Homeland Security employees has grown by 22 percent, the Justice Department has increased by 15 percent, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission can claim 25 percent more employees. (These figures assume that Congress adopts Mr. Obama's 2010 budget without significant changes.)

source

i forgot to add:

President’s Salary
$400,000 per year
$50,000 expense allowance

Vice President’s Salary
$227,300

Each former president is paid a lifetime, taxable pension that is equal to the annual rate of basic pay for the head of an executive federal department -- $193,400 in 2009 – the same annual salary paid to secretaries of the Cabinet agencies.

I believe the minimum wage in Illinois recently just went up $.25.

I'm not an economist (was there ever any doubt?), but you'd think the general cost of living would be going down.

With so many people out of work, businesses should be lowering their prices in order to make sales and be able to lower the wages that they pay their employees; resulting in a decrease in inflation.

reply to post by boondock-saint

For the fifth year in a row, lawmakers voted not to reject their automatic "cost of living" raise that will increase the annual salary of members by $3,400 to a total of $158,103 per year.
Congress votes self raise 2004: $3,400 a year

I didn't say any thing about this year, I meant recently as in this past decade. They have given them selves more than enough money to compensate, but you didn't mention the previous automatic raises they got. Let's not get into that discussion here, another thread or debate would be better.

The topic is that "they" have given themselves more, than the people got, the people who on their budget cant afford the increased taxies either...

Does that sound right to you, maybe it does, I don't care. They are thieves.

We need to stay on topic. take it up u2u or start a counter thread, don't derail mine.

Originally posted by boondock-saint

Originally posted by ADVISOR
Before you jump the gun and go posting before reading further, consider for a moment that congress and the senate recently gave them selves yet another pay raise, due to cost of living.

I think the OP needs to check his facts before
basing his story on falsehoods.

Congress did NOT raise their salaries in 2010.

www.factcheck.org...

And the Federal minimum wage was increased in 2007, 2008 and 2009.

www.laborlawcenter.com...
OP, you have a pretty good point, but seriously, check your facts before posting. It makes your whole point look suspect when you build an argument on a faulty foundation.

The U.S can't afford to run out of unemployment . Can you just imagine what would happen if large numbers of the population are out of work and left with no money ?

Scary thought

reply to post by Pseudonaut


Thank you for correcting me and making sure I knew my place.


Some times even staff get carried away, and need reminders. I am human after all, really.


I under stand what you guys are getting at, but honestly...they didn't give the people # in comparison, really. You all know what I am getting at.

The little bs facts, fine feel free to argue some little detail but the argument is sound. They have taken more from the people than they have given.

Even with the "alleged" increase in minmum, look at the taxes added also. We didn't get jack #!

Especially in comparison, side by side their increased vs ours. No contest they are thieves!

Crucify me for not being more precise in my "facts", facts are there you guys who checked them good job. You didn't just take my word for it, that is the best action I have seen on ats for some time.

How ever, the point remains the same, does it not.

Now that is out of the way, what about the general issue and overall picture...

Is it too late, are there enough people who want to care that will?

I'm starting to wonder.
But is that more important than the issue brought up?

Especially since it was stated my point is a good one and, reason is sound?