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    toothpetardHamilton Nolan
    7/03/14 3:17pm

    When I consider any social system that prevails in the modern world, I can't, so help me God, see it as anything but a conspiracy of the rich to advance their own interests under the pretext of organizing society. They think up all sorts of tricks and dodges, first for keeping safe their ill-gotten gains, and then for exploiting the poor by buying their labor as cheaply as possible. Once the rich have decided that these tricks and dodges shall be officially recognized by society—which includes the poor as well as the rich—they acquire the force of law. Thus, an unscrupulous minority is led by its insatiable greed to monopolize what would have been enough to supply the needs of the whole population.

    —Sir Thomas More, Utopia (1516)

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      Left Handshaketoothpetard
      7/03/14 3:23pm

      What a waste it is to lose one's mind. Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is.

      - Dan Quayle

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      JohannesClimacustoothpetard
      7/03/14 3:23pm

      Even Marx himself understood the necessity of passing through various forms of capitalism as a means of wealth creation. Wealth is good, and capitalism has created it. Sure we can argue about distributive justice, but let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater here.

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    DolemiteHamilton Nolan
    7/03/14 3:19pm

    Of that 33%, none of them are retirees?

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      Cherith CutestoryDolemite
      7/03/14 3:32pm

      No, those would be measured as people who have fallen out of the workplace/no longer looking for work. This only includes people still seeking employment.

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      RussianistCherith Cutestory
      7/03/14 3:38pm

      The number of unemployed people, the ones who have given up, is the stat no government really wants to talk about.

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    JohannesClimacusHamilton Nolan
    7/03/14 3:25pm

    The elimination of labor and toil would be a good thing but for the distributive mechanisms of our economy. Imagine if every American worker who lost his or her job to either technology or cheap foreign labor has a meaningful ownership interest in the business for which they worked? We'd all be celebrating the elimination of American jobs and working less as a society. Working sucks.

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      RussianistJohannesClimacus
      7/03/14 3:41pm

      That's the direction things are going in this country, like it or not. That people are starting to talk about a guaranteed minimum income (more as a desperation measure than anything else) is a sign of it.

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      JohannesClimacusRussianist
      7/03/14 3:47pm

      As Marx woudl also argue, such direction is an foregone inevitable conclusion.

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    SmitrosHamilton Nolan
    7/03/14 3:24pm

    Has anyone reported and/or analyzed the more inclusive U-6 measure?

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      sui_generisSmitros
      7/03/14 3:48pm

      Did anyone do so before this President?

      Most had never heard of any other employment indicator but U-3, until Obama started turning that one around. Now we're going to start a new standard, eh...?

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      cepalgsui_generis
      7/03/14 4:28pm

      true, but in fairness that was before unemployment skyrocketed and a whole lotta fresh grads discovered "wait, i have no job and they're not counting me as unemployed? horseshit."

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    sui_generisHamilton Nolan
    7/03/14 8:44pm

    Yeah, this chart tells the story of Obama's employment curve since he took office in 2009 even better:

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      e.nonHamilton Nolan
      7/03/14 4:08pm

      might want to take a closer look at what type of jobs:

      n June the BLS reports that the number of full-time jobs tumbled by 523K to 118.2 million while part-time jobs soared by 799K to over 28 million

      http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-07-0…

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        jgezzze.non
        7/03/14 5:04pm

        yup, and the decrease in Unemployment from 6.3 to 6.1 was not due to better job conditions but because (surprise!) the number of people not in the labor force rose to a record high in June of 92,120k up 111k from June which also partly explains the decrease in long term unemployment; they're not getting jobs, they're simply not getting counted anymore. Summer of Recovery (part deux? trois? quatre?) baby! Green Shoots like you read about!

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        Uncle Chigurhjgezzz
        7/03/14 10:40pm

        So the 288,000 jobs added in June had nothing to do with the drop in unemployment?

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      joofballzHamilton Nolan
      7/03/14 3:32pm

      unless we create new kinds of specialized jobs, or even new sectors, we will continue to create low-to-medium skill jobs that are highly susceptible to global competition. this means that in future, the employment rate should be much more volatile and also say a lot less fundamentally about the shape of our economy, since many of these jobs are freelance/part time.

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        Cherith Cutestoryjoofballz
        7/03/14 3:37pm

        That's fine. We just need a guaranteed minimum income so there is a floor. Much like that communist Richard Nixon recommended.

        New situations require new solutions.

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        samarkandjoofballz
        7/03/14 3:55pm

        Isn't it actually a lot of the high skill digital jobs that are most susceptible to global competition? Look at elance and see who you're up against for getting work doing programming, coding, writing, and graphic design. A lot of low-skill, low-wage jobs can't be outsourced, but an awful lot of technical and creative jobs can.

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      lollygagHamilton Nolan
      7/03/14 3:27pm

      How long is long-term unemployment? Im curious to see how my personal life matches up....Ive found work but my SO hasnt....

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        Russianistlollygag
        7/03/14 3:53pm

        There's the 6-month government measure. But if you want a rough personal measure (based on the old severance pay formula), for every year you've worked in your life expect to spend one month unemployed before you find a comparable position and/or salary. Being unemployed beyond that point would indicate you're out of your personally expected "temporary" unemployment zone and into a potentially more long-term situation.

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      hotsoccermomHamilton Nolan
      7/03/14 3:41pm

      HamNo, if Gawker were a pop band, you'd be Thoughtful Spice, so let me put this before you. Is it perhaps worth considering — given the calamitous state of our natural world and our environment — that an economic slowdown would be largely beneficial? That growth-growth-growth in perpetuity is not only bad but impossible and unsustainable?

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        PseudoHermeshotsoccermom
        7/03/14 6:12pm

        The trouble is that no growth hurts people who work for money the most... capital can very easily still provide solid returns in an era of no economic growth (see: the last few years). Even in an era of negative growth, the people who own capital tend to protect themselves first. That's why, today, companies aren't hiring even though profits are at very high levels. They could hire and reduce unemployment, or keep sucking off the teat of whatever shit they own, and they always choose the latter.

        Growth in perpetuity has its problems too, because capital eats up most of that growth, but the alternative isn't pretty either. Luckily, it doesn't have to be a dichotomy.

        *may or may not just have finished reading Piketty*

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        rogboyhotsoccermom
        7/04/14 12:56am

        If you consider an economic slowdown to be so beneficial, are you offering to put yourself out of employment?

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      GalFromBrooklynHamilton Nolan
      7/03/14 3:21pm

      FURTHER EVIDENCE OF OBUMMER'S BUMBLING INCOMPE-

      Oh, huh.

      Well. HE'S A TYRANT AND A DICTATOR. AND HE MUST BE IMPEACHED BEFORE HIS JACKBOOTED GOVERNMENT THUGS IMPOSE TYRANNY ON US ALL.

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        formetopooponGalFromBrooklyn
        7/03/14 3:41pm

        if we're taking bets on what the GOP's talking points will be about it, i'm going with the numbers aren't accurate. followed by some misdirection to another empty talking point.. maybe BENGHAZI again?

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        GalFromBrooklynformetopoopon
        7/03/14 3:42pm

        BOWE BERGDAHL! ALSO TYRANNY. Tyranny really seems to be a talking point these days.

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