Robert Ariail for February 19, 2012

Robert is never confused by facts.

who are you, newt gingrich, mitt romney?

Now just how do the number crunchers figure “actual” unemployment? Based on what I’ve seen in applying for jobs, based upon what recruiters have told me (the few who talk), a better figure would be 20%.

As an unaffiliated voter, I am going to interject that the real issue now is the quality of jobs. I have been working a seasonal job on an assembly line 4 days a week 10 hours a day but no benefits like health care. Then I work three days a week at a major retailer but the PT health care is so poor that it is not worth having.My son graduated from UNC in 2010 and is working pt at a grocery store. His best friend graduated UNC-W and has been pt at a grocery store but is joining the Navy as an E-1 since they don’t need officers and he has to start paying his student loans.Bottom line – We all have jobs and do not qualify for unemployment or any kind of assistance but we are all not making it. If you have a FT job, consider yourself fortunate. BTW I have two masters degrees.

http://comments-life.blogspot.com/

Absolutely right, olfart. The perception of influence causes more influence than actual deeds. I would assess more blame on Congress than any president. Another thing people misconstrue is they think the economy reacts almost immediately and place the blame or credit on who ever is presently in the oval office rather than the whole of the three branches. I believe it (the economic system) runs on a 5 to 10 year lag time constant. You Engineers out there know what I mean. Clinton benefited or suffered from policies implemented during Reagan, Bush II from the combined effects of Bush I and Clinton, Obama from Clinton and Bush II. I fear for economic disaster we may be in 4 to 8 years from now.

It took 30 years of tax breaks, deregulation, and shipping jobs overseas to create the mess. Things ARE turning around, despite the opposition from “conservatives” in Congress. The simple element for our commentators here from the right is they need to get out of the “Helen Keller awareness and response” mode. Ann Sullivan helped Helen, these current “conservatives” would have shot Annie.

Oh, I’m sure that more than 9% of Congress will have their unemployment notice in November.

There is an enormous discrepancy between the “official” unemployment number (those who are claiming unemployment insurance), and those in the work force who are not employed (including those who aren’t or cannot claim unemployment insurance). The current “official” number of unemployed is over 12.9 million, but the number of people in the US work force not employed is over 23.1 million, or nearly TWICE the “official” number.

When you work it all out using the real unemployment number, it comes out to 16.3% Go here and check it out: http://www.usdebtclock.org/

BTW, over 46.7 million receive food stamps. That’s 33.1% of the US workforce.

Romney calls the U-6 number the “real unemployment rate,” but BLS spokesman Gary Steinberg said the agency does not refer to U-6 as any kind of “unemployment rate,” real or otherwise, because it includes people who are employed, albeit part-time. The U-3 figure is the “official unemployment rate,” Steinberg said, and has been calculated the same way for decades.

http://www.factcheck.org/2012/02/whats-the-real-jobless-rate/

Long time ‘til that ’lection. Them grapes sho’ tastin’ sour, ain’t they.

that charliekane sho is being racist ain’t he. Come on Charlie, grow up. that kind of racist remarks just shows that you hate having a black man for president.

I don’t know who runs this annenburg thing but even if jobs aren’t as good as MSM says, you are still showing your dirty fake burlesque black talk Black people don’t really talk like that.

With the political season well under way each side is now flooding us with statistical facts that appear to accurately present the merit of their political positions. The problem is that the same stats somehow manage to declare that both sides are ahead and/or more capable concerning the very same issue…common sense tells us this cannot be…or can it be?Well, there is a story that I have always loved because it clearly demonstrates how actual facts can be used to show, or at least imply, that there is often more than one truth to a story… whether that truth is the whole truth or not.In the late 60’s or early 70’s there was a little thawing spell in the Cold War. A basketball game was subsequently arranged between a U.S. team made up from the best players U.S. Colleges had to offer and (allegedly) the same was done in Russia. The game was played in Russia and despite the size and age difference between the Russian “College” players and the Americans, the American team won handily. Though only the two teams played the report in the next day Russian newspapers read: "American team finishes second to last in basketball tournament while your Russian team has finished second to first.” I must give them credit (with a twisted smile) as they did not overtly lie, they simply presented the facts in such a unique way that it implied the better worth of their team and political system by simply not stating the whole truth.

So it is today that statistical facts, even when acquired by the best scientific methods possible, can be arranged or re-arranged so that the facts presented either imply or confirm pretty-well anything someone wishes to trumpet. The only way to deal with this often used “sleight of hand/editorial” trickery or outright deceit, and be sure you’re actually being presented the whole truth, is to go to the source documents. There you can ascertain what information was actually sought, acquired and the methodology used in attaining that information that is now being presented to you. Only then can you conclude for yourself the true value and worth of the facts presented…Or you can simply trust those who have provided those facts (as many of us so often do), be they from the RNC, the DNC, any Dept. of local, State of National Government, or the guy who gives you an estimate for repairs on your car or home. (Fun huh…not)

No, they were pushed in the Bush administration.

The only percentage that REALLY matters is the person who’s 100% unemployed, and has been for a long time, because his job has been exported, or “downsized”.