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1 in 4 Americans are jobless or earning poverty-level wages, new study finds

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Re: 1 in 4 Americans are jobless or earning poverty-level wages, new study finds

#31

Post by tyre »

Der_Einzige wrote: post #24
troughway wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope, the middle class is living now better than kings have lived in the past. Let that thought wash over you and don't think twice about the jobless statistics whatsoever.

You're being downvoted because people on HN don't like being reminded about how good they have it. Sorry, you don't deserve this.

Or they might be downvoted because “kings hundreds of years ago” is an irrelevant comparison when talking about the lives of people today.

This isn’t a dinner party conversation of whether I’d rather be a feudal lord in 1270 Britain or an American living paycheck to paycheck in 2020.

Or they might be downvoted because this community skews towards makers, and “it’s better than it was so why talk about how to fix its problems?” is the antithesis of building, creating, making. It is the antithesis of the very real work of progress.

Re: 1 in 4 Americans are jobless or earning poverty-level wages, new study finds

#32

Post by elif »

_qulr wrote: post #12

"By comparison, the October jobless rate stood at 6.9%, down from 14.7% in April as workers regained jobs or gave up searching for work." I love how the hopeless are not counted as jobless.

And it's more nefarious than simply a matter of misrepresenting statistics. For instance, I was denied even the minimum Pandemic Unemployment Assistance because I have been unemployed since before the pandemic began.

Re: 1 in 4 Americans are jobless or earning poverty-level wages, new study finds

#33

Post by jorblumesea »

mcbutterbunz wrote: post #4

If you’re a capitalist or a socialist or somewhere in between, I think we should try to find common ground that this isn’t a good position for society or the future.

I really don't believe people think that way, unfortunately. Many people see this as the "natural order of things". The idea that a significant percentage of the population should be in debt, jobless or lacking healthcare coverage has been normalized and institutionalized in the US.

Anyone who wants to change this will be fighting an uphill battle against cultural norms, vested business interests and ideological positions.

Re: 1 in 4 Americans are jobless or earning poverty-level wages, new study finds

#34

Post by koolba »

_qulr wrote: post #12

"By comparison, the October jobless rate stood at 6.9%, down from 14.7% in April as workers regained jobs or gave up searching for work." I love how the hopeless are not counted as jobless.

Consistency in how statistics are measured is important. You can rag on the methods but without consistency it’d be meaningless.

The majority of what you term as “hopeless” is seniors that are let go and eventually decide to retire rather than entering the work force at wages less than they earned previously. It’s not a bunch of disillusioned 20 somethings giving up on life.

Re: 1 in 4 Americans are jobless or earning poverty-level wages, new study finds

#37

Post by topkai22 »

While their is much reasonable debate about what "true" poverty level rates are, this study uses a threshold of $20k/year for a worker. That's significantly higher than the federal rate set by the Census bureau at $14k/year for a single worker with no other household members. A 2 earner household each pulling in $18k a year, or $36k a year, in the cheaper parts of the US is not an easy life, but its also difficult to call it a poverty. That's why many government studies of this type will use household income and size, rather than an arbitrary cut off.

I'm don't really know what to make of this number. I know what they are trying to express, but it doesn't seem well done.

Re: 1 in 4 Americans are jobless or earning poverty-level wages, new study finds

#38

Post by [deleted] »

omgwtfbyobbq wrote: post #27
_qulr wrote: post #12

"By comparison, the October jobless rate stood at 6.9%, down from 14.7% in April as workers regained jobs or gave up searching for work." I love how the hopeless are not counted as jobless.

The BLS should be using U-6, but I don't an administration would do that because it will make things look worse. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t15.htm

[deleted]

Re: 1 in 4 Americans are jobless or earning poverty-level wages, new study finds

#39

Post by tyre »

nickthemagicman wrote: post #11

What is that almost a 100 million people? Seems like a lot. I wonder how many have families and kids. Such a bummer. At least Granny is safe!

One in eight nursing home residents in Massachusetts has so far died of COVID-19.

Let’s be careful with flippant remarks about people dying when the measures we _have_ put in place have still left us with hundreds of thousands of people dead.

There are reasonable debates about how we handle the response to a pandemic in America. Let’s stick to those.

Re: 1 in 4 Americans are jobless or earning poverty-level wages, new study finds

#40

Post by kiba »

jorblumesea wrote: post #33
mcbutterbunz wrote: post #4

If you’re a capitalist or a socialist or somewhere in between, I think we should try to find common ground that this isn’t a good position for society or the future.

I really don't believe people think that way, unfortunately. Many people see this as the "natural order of things". The idea that a significant percentage of the population should be in debt, jobless or lacking healthcare coverage has been normalized and institutionalized in the US. Anyone who wants to change this will be fighting an uphill battle against cultural norms, vested business interests and ideological posi…

They do? Who are these people?
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