W9WI.com - My Rant

<H1>November Decision - Part 5</H1>

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<b>Reason #5: It's the economy, stupid!:</b><br>

One would think economic statistics are a hard science.  One might be
surprised.<p>

The GOP argues the economy is improving; people are getting back to work;
the unemployment rate is down.  The statistics show the second two parts are
true.  However...<p>

You count as "employed" if you have a job.  I guess that makes sense! 
However, this definition of "employed" includes those who:<br>
<bl>
<li><b>Lost their job & can't find another one at the same pay rate.</b>
Joe Blow used to make $50,000 a year building cars.  Then, he lost his job. 
After a diligent search, he found another job stocking shelves at Wal-Mart. 
Now he makes $25,000 a year.  He counts as "employed" - but he sure isn't
anywhere near as well off as he was before Bush came to power!</li>

<li><b>Can't find a job with health benefits.</b>  You count as "employed"
if you have a job that doesn't offer health insurance, or one at which the
required employee contribution for insurance is prohibitively large.</li>

<li><b>Had to move to find work.</b>  If your friends and family are in
Minneapolis but you had to move to San Antonio to find a job, you still
count as "employed".  You, and your family, sure won't be all that happy
about it though...</li>

<li><b>Face worse conditions at work.</b>  You're required to work
additional overtime to cover for the co-workers who got laid off.  You're
placed under continuous stress to maintain quality as management buys
cheaper raw materials, cuts back on equipment, and reduces staff.  In a good
economy, you'd quit - but when things are slow your choices are abuse or
poverty...</li>
</bl>

<hr>

Arguably, total income is up.  That can be misleading.  Imagine an economy
with 201 participants:<br>

<bl>
<li>One executive, making $1,000,000/year.</li>
<li>100 factory workers, making $40,000/year each.</li>
<li>100 fast-food workers, making $20,000/year each.</li>
</bl>

These 201 people earn a total income of $7,000,000/year.  <p>

Now, let's say the executive decides to make some changes.  He lays off 25
of his factory workers, and pays the rest a 3% raise.  20 of the laid-off
workers find fast-food jobs; five remain unemployed.  To stay competitive,
the fast-food companies pay a 3% raise too.  For his efforts in improving
the company's bottom line, the Board of Directors decides to pay the
executive a
$1,000,000 bonus.<p>

In this new year, the 201 people earn a total income of $7,562,000, an 8.03%
increase over the previous year.  Sounds good, right?<p>

Now, let's remove the executive from the calculations.  The 200 workers... 
went from earning $6,000,000 in the previous year...  to $5,562,000 this
year.  They <u>lost</u> 7.3%.  <p>

Yet according to the statistics, things are better.  Hmmm...<p>

<hr>
More to follow.



<P>&copy; D. Smith W9WI 2009</P>
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