U.S. economy lost 23,000 jobs in July, a sudden reversal • Hacker News Board

Re: U.S. economy lost 23,000 jobs in July, a sudden reversal

#381

Post by mgkimsal » Mon, Aug 10, 2026, 2:46 AM UTC

ericmay wrote: post #255

mgkimsal wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> thus paying more in taxes If the taxes were being spent to help those who were not working (unable to or for whatever reason) maybe that would be fine. We might take in more taxes, but when we cut funding for childhood cancer research, and build more missiles... is this really the way we want our money spent? > Democrats are by and large aligned with his economic agenda. Perhaps there was more overlap 10 years ago,…

> We might take in more taxes, but when we cut funding for childhood cancer research, and build more missiles... is this really the way we want our money spent? Well we all have our opinions on how our money is spent. I for one think we need a lot more missiles and a lot more folks working instead of living off of taxpayer dollars (labor participation rate is the lowest ever ), broadly speaking. But we don't really h…

global tariffs via ieepa or similar legislation - base flat tariffs against all imports from all countries - I think those will go. Biden kept some targeted tariffs, but didn't massive expand or do country-based tariffs.

Re: U.S. economy lost 23,000 jobs in July, a sudden reversal

#382

Post by eru » Mon, Aug 10, 2026, 6:47 AM UTC

asa123 wrote: post #248

toomuchtodo wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can only n=1, but most, if not all, experiences we've had obtaining medical care were better in Europe. Care specialist for my autistic kids, primary care, etc. From my unofficial surveys, many folks I know in the US are having a hard time finding various care providers, even if they have insurance. More data on this is always welcome.

I can believe this; it's my personal and anecdotal evidence (and that which is believed by family) that the maximum quality of US medical care is quite incredible, but any perceived median (accounting for accessibility and cost) is really quite shit

The US has a lot of the world's best specialists.

Re: U.S. economy lost 23,000 jobs in July, a sudden reversal

#383

Post by renegade-otter » Mon, Aug 10, 2026, 11:51 AM UTC

pgwhalen wrote: post #157

renegade-otter wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The numbers are as good as they can get with hard manual work that goes into compiling them. The problem is that small businesses lag by 1-2 months reporting them, so the initial number being reported is almost always irrelevant, as it mostly applies to numbers coming out of larger corporations.

I think you say “as good as they can get with [the] hard manual work that goes into compiling them” as a way to respect the challenge of the BLS and say they’re doing the best with their resources, but it’s worth pointing out they could be better with more resources.

That is exactly right. This is a short pod episode where a former BLS director explains all this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhsLjmqse98

Re: U.S. economy lost 23,000 jobs in July, a sudden reversal

#384

Post by pgwhalen » Mon, Aug 10, 2026, 12:01 PM UTC

renegade-otter wrote: post #383

pgwhalen wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you say “as good as they can get with [the] hard manual work that goes into compiling them” as a way to respect the challenge of the BLS and say they’re doing the best with their resources, but it’s worth pointing out they could be better with more resources.

That is exactly right. This is a short pod episode where a former BLS director explains all this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhsLjmqse98

Indeed this is my source for the claim!

Re: U.S. economy lost 23,000 jobs in July, a sudden reversal

#385

Post by ericmay » Mon, Aug 10, 2026, 2:39 PM UTC

mgkimsal wrote: post #381

ericmay wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We might take in more taxes, but when we cut funding for childhood cancer research, and build more missiles... is this really the way we want our money spent? Well we all have our opinions on how our money is spent. I for one think we need a lot more missiles and a lot more folks working instead of living off of taxpayer dollars (labor participation rate is the lowest ever ), broadly speaking. But we don't really h…

global tariffs via ieepa or similar legislation - base flat tariffs against all imports from all countries - I think those will go. Biden kept some targeted tariffs, but didn't massive expand or do country-based tariffs.

I can see changes but I'm not sure about flat tariffs going away completely. One of the reasons for those is because what China will do to avoid American tariffs is to basically try and set up shop in a 3rd country, or just do some legal configuration to make the products they are dumping seem to come from the 3rd country instead. Kind of like a "final assembly" style loophole.

I agree Biden largely just kept the Trump regime in place, especially with respect to China, but I also think he was dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic and so something like broad tariffs given the economic and political environment probably weren't really considered.

Personally I feel like it's a win-win for me. Either we re-shore more manufacturing, stop China from dumping, &c. which result in higher prices but have other benefits that I value, or we don't and prices go down and wages and such go down which means cheaper goods and services which is also nice.