Agreed. "Job quality" / Wages versus cost of living should also be taken into account.
Low unemployment isn’t worth much if the jobs barely pay
271–280 of 685 posts
Re: Low unemployment isn’t worth much if the jobs barely pay
#272>In a recent analysis, we found that 53 million workers ages 18 to 64—or 44% of all workers—earn barely enough to live on. >The majority of low-wage workers (77%) have less than a college degree, So there are 53 (1-0.77) = 12.2 million workers with college degrees who are only able to earn "barely enough to live on". Poor instruction or irrelevant majors in college? Or drug use, criminal convictions, disabling diseas…
I'm thinking mostly poor instruction/irrelevant majors.
Re: Low unemployment isn’t worth much if the jobs barely pay
#273Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you have any sources to back up that claim?
I'm sure it varies by region and time period, but for 2000-2019 in california, the cumulative inflation was 49%, while the minimum wage rose 108%. And in the most recent years, wages are going up across the board at the low pay tier: https://www.wsj.com/articles/rank-and-file-workers-get-bigge...
Continuing to talk about "average" inflation, rather than housing / asset inflation, is borderline disingenuous. Of course the price of consumer products has fallen - that was the primary gain of technological progress and outsourcing it all to China. The price of housing (and healthcare, education) is what has everyone over a barrel, and that's a direct result of the policy to make that average continue to go up in the face of technological progress.
Re: Low unemployment isn’t worth much if the jobs barely pay
#274We must do away with the absolutely specious notion that everybody has to earn a living. It is a fact today that one in ten thousand of us can make a technological breakthrough capable of supporting all the rest. The youth of today are absolutely right in recognizing this nonsense of earning a living. We keep inventing jobs because of this false idea that everybody has to be employed at some kind of drudgery because, according to Malthusian-Darwinian theory, he must justify his right to exist. So we have inspectors of inspectors and people making instruments for inspectors to inspect inspectors. The true business of people should be to go back to school and think about whatever it was they were thinking about before somebody came along and told them they had to earn a living. - Buckminster Fuller
One in ten thousand of us can make a technological breakthrough capable of supporting all the rest. The youth of today are absolutely right in recognizing this nonsense of earning a wage. - Buckminster Fuller
Re: Low unemployment isn’t worth much if the jobs barely pay
#275I don't think low unemployment is the unequivocal positive sign that politicians/ think it is ("We're putting millions of Americans back to work!"). Maybe it's not something to be so proud of. If people are having to come out of the woodwork to take jobs that aren't moving the average wage up, maybe they're doing it because they have to, in order to get by. Is it a good thing that a 60+ year old goes back to work at…
Yes, it is. As opposed to starving or being a freeloader.
Freeloader... like those women who have been unable to work due to being full-time caretaker for a disabled spouse or child, or cared for their own parents until death, and so didn't have much or any income to save from...
Re: Low unemployment isn’t worth much if the jobs barely pay
#276How true. But even pay is misleading. Ultimately, it's about cost of living / affordability. For example, if hourly rate increases but housing - sensing the market can bear more - soon follows then the pay increase is a wash, or worse.
Re: Low unemployment isn’t worth much if the jobs barely pay
#277America has a weird sense of superiority about its lower unemployment numbers vs Canada. The difference is the US, you basically need a job, or else you're one broken ankle, complex childbirth, or infected hangnail away from complete financial ruin. People being able to take extra time to find the right job is a good thing for the economy. Better than being driven by an abject fear of not having a job.
As a Canadian, who's been unemployed in Canada...just what??? Being unemployed was one of the most stressful times of my life. I had to hustle for odd jobs to pay bills, and the ≈$700 every two weeks for about 4 months I got from ei wasn't even enough to cover rent. I barely made it through and kept my place. The only reason I didn't end up homeless was finding a job within the last few weeks of my ei. There were day…
Now what would you do if you had a sudden medical emergency during your time on EI?
In Canada, you'd go to the doctor and then continue you on your way.
In the USA, with the situation you described above, you would now be homeless. And in debt.
So yes, they're both stressful. But one is worse.
Re: Low unemployment isn’t worth much if the jobs barely pay
#278Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, it is. As opposed to starving or being a freeloader.
Is it still good if that 60+ year old has never been a 'freeloader' and has made the best choices possible to provide for their self/family with the income that the person was able to make prior to retirement? If the 60+ year old has been a net benefit to society, should they not be provided a means of living after retirement age?
If that 60 year old is expecting to live until he is 90 then it is rather funny he or she thinks retirement at 60 is the thing unless that person has enough money to saved to cover half of his or hers lifetime.
Re: Low unemployment isn’t worth much if the jobs barely pay
#279The low unemployment rate is proof that this techno optimism isn’t true.
Re: Low unemployment isn’t worth much if the jobs barely pay
#280Earlier quoted context omitted.
Conservative perspectives often involve some sort of built-in need to proselytize, because they view life as a triumph of ego over intrinsic human weakness. There's an idea that all people need to hear the message of personal responsibility. Sadly data is weaker than any bias of perspectives, and people find it impossible to think causally without some larger brittle philosophical framework.
>Conservative perspectives often involve some sort of built-in need to proselytize, because they view life as a triumph of ego over intrinsic human weakness. There's an idea that all people need to hear the message of personal responsibility. If we're reducing political parties to extreme stereotypes, then perhaps the pressure of the distant right is an appropriate counter to the pressure from the distant left which…
I do not find liberal philosophy more accurate. On almost every issue one can make reasonable evidentiary arguments for either perspective. The problem is people can't even make policy decisions on the basis of controlled statistics and the experimental method (when that's possible).
I just think that conservative thinking lends itself to an evangelical mindset, while liberals tend to view their philosophy as inevitable. Often they are content to wait for people to evolve to their level. Hillary's inaction in the previous campaign is a perfect example of that mindset.