By all accounts Australia is a country that in the Northern Hemisphere doesn't get a lot of press - however more than 22.7 million men, women, and children call it home - and no doubt with earnest affection and pride.
In the United States there are in the broadest sense, 23 million unemployed Americans - more than every soul presently living in Australia! Imagine that - 23 million Americans who either can't find work, gave up looking for work completely or took jobs they didn't want just for the sake of having some work to do and a chance to earn a little meager income. Why, if the Australians weren't already there, we could just swoop down and fill up their country with unemployed Americans without missing a beat!
Or, if you prefer, imagine the entire population of Ireland, Norway, Finland, Denmark and about half of Switzerland (it's okay, the Swiss are used to being divied up against other national interests, anyway) just sitting around watching TV and you arrive at the same dismal result - there are a helluva lot of unemployed Americans in this country. Pretty much more unemployed people here in the US than those who live in most other countries.
Yeah, Okay, and now the quibbling begins over the numbers. What we're talking about here are the BROADEST measures of unemployment and misery - not the questionable US official estimates of narrowly defined unemployment.
But even so, those "official" US numbers (U-3) are 12.8 million unemployed. And the federal government will concede that the "marginally unattached" (U-5), bureaucratic officialese meaning those who would like to work but haven't looked recently and then also those who gave up looking for work completely (U-4), should be added into the total - after all the Dept. of Labor goes to the trouble of tracking them in U-5 and U-4 categories. That bumps up the official numbers to 15.3 million unemployed.
Then we have all those 8.2 million part-time "statistical miscreants". What to do with them? What to do, what to do? Well, how many people do you know who are making it through on part-time wages? Seems like we pretty much need to count them also. And there you have it - better than 23.5 million (U-6) out of work and, or unhappily economically engaged Americans.
But wait, if we use the "official" U-6 unemployment rate of 15% and the "official" 23.5 million unemployed number that means there is an "officially mathematically derived" total workforce number of 156.7 million Americans. Uh, the official, "official" number of workforce age Americans is 239.6 million Americans among a total US population of 311.6 million people. What's going on here? Shouldn't the workforce numbers be the same or at least close? Could it be that the total unemployed population in America is really 46.7 million people? Look Out Spain , here we come! Just Kidding. No really, just kidding, Spain - we couldn't possibly have that many people looking for work, but the statistics are, you know, just so arcane, or there are a boatload from the workforce dying everyday, or ....???
At the Republican National Convention in Tampa, guest speaker, Clint Eastwood said last evening, " -- and I haven't cried that hard since I found out that there (are) 23 million unemployed people in this country. Now that is something to cry for because that is a disgrace, a national disgrace, and we haven't done enough, obviously -- this administration hasn't done enough to cure that. Whatever interest they have is not strong enough, and I think possibly now it may be time for somebody else to come along and solve the problem."
And who are the principal architects of this ongoing train wreck of a national calamity? This is one time I can honestly step up and cast a vote for: Barack Obama .... and Nancy Pelosi .... and Harry Reid !
