State Of The Union (Unemployment)

.
.
.
Blog 5 of August (Just meeting my obssessive compulsive quota)


I have been mostly uninspired to continue with the blogging because as far as i know i don't have much of a readership (with the exception of my number ONE reader Chan xoxo). But being that i have pretty much committed (challenge myself) to doing at least five postings a month i have anticipated sitting here before the monitor without much inspiration as to what to chatter up on next. There is plenty going on in the world, in the hood, in my own home, but i havent felt like taking it all on consistantly.
That changed when i got a text this morning from a dear person in my life (whom happens to identify as Conservative/Republican -aye i didn't tag him, he identifies himself as such). The text starts out: "FACTS, FACTS, FACTS" and goes on to claim that unemployment is at its lowest level in years. This begs a response, NOT because i am trying to have any type of ideological battle with anyone, but out of the good righteous deed that comes of the motto: "Each One Teach One".
It is not to be taken as a strike against anyone, but to be considered the responsible duty of a responsible citizen, to RESEARCH and provide ACTUAL facts. Not to merit an "I'm right and you're wrong" kind of thing, but simply to provide an objective basis off of which we can build in having real discussion about the state of things in the U, S, of A.


So without further adou, i share with you statistics given by the US Department of Labor (www.bls.gov)

If you link on to:
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm

You get an article which starts out giving you the state of unemployment as of July 08 (which is the most current, until August is summed up). PLEASE READ:



THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION: JULY 2008

The unemployment rate rose to 5.7 percent, and nonfarm payroll employment
continued to trend down in July (-51,000), the Bureau of Labor Statistics of
the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Employment continued to fall in
construction, manufacturing, and several service-providing industries, while
health care and mining continued to add jobs.


Scroll down that page and you will come upon a chart which breaks down by quarter how the unemployment rate has gone up over the year:
from 4.9 to 5.3 to 5.5 then 5.7


This means the unemployment rate is the highest it has been since 2003 when the rate was 6.0. Realize this: When George Bush came into office he was coming into a situation where Bill Clinton had gotten the unemployment rate down to 4.0. In Clinton's second term the country never finished over 5.0. During his first term he never finished BELOW 5.0. Since unemployment has been recorded (1948), the two highest unemployment rates occured during the Reagan administration (a WHOPPING 9.7 in 1982, and 9.6 in 1983) *And this is the guy the modern Economically Conservative Republican politicians aspires to be (can you say TAX BREAK FOR THE WEALTHY?)

Check for yourself. All of this can be verified if you link on to:

http://data.bls.gov/PDQ/servlet/SurveyOutputServlet?data_tool=latest_numbers&series_id=LNU04000000&years_option=all_years&periods_option=specific_periods&periods=Annual+Data

1981 7.6
1982 9.7
1983 9.6
1984 7.5
1985 7.2
1986 7.0
1987 6.2
1988 5.5
1989 5.3
1990 5.6
1991 6.8
1992 7.5
1993 6.9
1994 6.1
1995 5.6
1996 5.4
1997 4.9
1998 4.5
1999 4.2
2000 4.0
2001 4.7
2002 5.8
2003 6.0
2004 5.5
2005 5.1
2006 4.6
2007 4.6



Now let me put this into a bit of perspective because i have studied economics and history enough to be able to break this down for those who don't know. And i begin by citing how the paragraph i first linked you to stated that "Employment continued to fall in construction, manufacturing, and several service-providing industries, while health care and mining continued to add jobs.".
I can see why the job market has been growing in Health Care and in Mining. It makes perfect sense if you open a newspaper every once inawhile! Listen to both the Republican and Democratic campaigns... Health Care is on the radar. Specifically for the Democrats whom are proposing some kind of Universal Health Care (Health Care for everyone *under conditions we do not know yet). So if there is a GREAT possibility that hospitals will be getting alot more full than they are right now, you can imagine that hospitals, clinics, and other health institutions have been hiring staff to take on this wave, and more and more people are going to school to get into the health field. It is just being promoted.
As far as Mining, what do you think? Well... have you heard of "clean coal?" for example. The government is engineering an effort to find alternative sources of fuel so that the economy doesn't have to depend on foreign oil. So miners are being hired.

The issue i want to really concentrate in that paragraph though is a historical one that really has effected the working man for as long as the unemployment rate has been recorded. It is the loss of jobs in manual labor. Jobs in "construction and manufacturing", and now even jobs leaving which effect those in the "service" industry. Why are these jobs leaving? it is called outsourcing! These wealthy corporation owners look to cut corners because they are all about their bottom line: maximizing their profits: making as much money as possible and paying out as little as possible. So they have exported factory jobs, manufacturing and construction for the last 50 years because it has maximized their profits to pay the poor people in Latin America and Asia 40 cents an hour without benefits as opposed to paying minimum wage to a worker here, who will eventually also require benefits in addition to that. GET IT? Origionally it was just labor jobs, but eventually it got the the point where they were even sending service jobs overseas, which is why as you commonly have heard people complain, you can very well be speaking to someone in India about your bill when you call your phone company.

**I am neither Republican NOR Democrat but i will tell you this. The high numbers of unemployment under Reagan tell you what happens under the Modern Republican, whom gives tax breaks to the wealthy, HOPING they will create jobs in America. What happens? These companys happily accept the tax break, but there is no condition written into these tax laws that tell them the MUST keep their companies here! So they move the companies overseas which if anything TAKES JOBS AWAY, and to suppliment for these jobs, build BIG BOX chains like Walmart which allows them to sell the products they make in China (where they pay workers less) BACK to us. What do we get? JOBS... AT WALLMART! lol This was Reagans proposal for trickle down economics. But as the numbers during his presidency show you... jobs actually never did come!**


Now this issue gets very complicated because as this is happening it effects the international community as much as it effects us here. And read carefully because what i am about to state gives analysis to the reason why immigrants come here and effect jobs from the other end!

Example: a corporation goes overseas to a country with an agrarian economy (they live off their own land). Their land is bought and often even revoked (just taken) from regular citizens with the support of the government in those countries (because we pad their pockets) and the nature of that countries economy eventually transitions to one similar to the one here where of course you work for an employer that pays you, and with that money you try to survive: paying rent, food, leisure, whatever... PROBLEM IS that these countries have been introduced to companies that left this country because they didn't want to pay workers. So if they are not going to support a livable wage here (wasn't like our grandparents were asking to be spoon fed.. they just wanted livable wages), what makes you think they were going to go over there and give these people a livable wage! They have gone their to exploit the opportunity.. to exploit the worker. So trade deals like NAFTA and other agreements between us and the currupt governments of these countries (whose pockets we pad) ensure that to the advantage of US Corporations, minimum wage is outlawed, workers are threatened if they form or join unions, and like here the first people to suffer are the working people whose jobs get cut when THEIR economies stumble. And whereas two, three decades before people could live off the land, they wind up without work... without a way to survive.. and what do they do???

They come here, to work for less than YOU do. The same way that the corporations left you without work in the first place to go over there and pay THEM less.

These are called Neo-Liberal policies
and the manipulation of these '3rd world countries' economies is called Structural Adjustment



How do i sum this up?
by saying this...

We're FUCKED!

doesn't matter much if we are led by democrats or republicans, because the wheels have been in motion and the culture of our economy is international. Globalization. Now we are living this schizophrenic HYPOCRITICAL existance where we want to criticize China, while the sons and daughters of the wealthy are teaching their children Chinese so they can go over there some day. What's the message? If you want REAL money? you aint going to make it here!

This is an issue i cannot ABSOLUTELY tackle in ONE blog! I have read books, i have taken classes. All i can really do is encourage you to read books, take classes.. and if you cant then at least allow yourself to explore different sources of media. Because mainstream media doesn't give HISTORICAL analysis in depth. It only scratches the surface. So read The Village Voice, The Nation, and other sites that will give you real critical analysis. There is no reason to be offended. It's like people like to boast: "I am open to criticism" Our policies have to be open to criticism, or we do not learn from them. Too many people walk around comfortable with a blind sense of patriotism. All they know are slogans. And it feels good.. it is a high. And it can be scary when you are a bit uninformed about such concepts as "socialism" and the mainstream media is telling you this is a bad word.. and the more you dig you realize that the things i am telling you to read are supporting socialism as an alternative to this system of exploitation. But you know what.. out of every one child going to college out of the hood there are 100 whom are the sons and daughters who benefit from the very system i briefed you on above. Have parents whom are owners, executives in big industries. Out of every teacher from the hood there are 100 born out of the middle class whom dont want to hear about anything different because like George Carlin stated "we have cellphones that flip pancakes". So imagine being that one child from the hood (perhaps you ARE that child). You are entering institutions which do not speak to your suffering.
And you have a choice...
Be happy getting a house and moving OUT of the hood
until the housing market stumbles and the hood moves back to YOU (as was the case when my family first moved to Staten Island, the first or second latino family in that caldersac UNTIL like four years later when once again we were surrounded by our people, and in essence, back in the hood)

OR

Educate yourself and at least support policies, if not TAKING ACTION to transform things so that the system serves the people and not the other way around. So that we can hold politicans as accountable for our well being as they hold us accountable for proving we love this country by going to war, by sweating your ass off working to take care of your home, by paying taxes to keep shit running smooth.

I am not talking about picking up a gun!
They got to that point when the likes of George Washington took up arms against their own wealthy oppressors in the English.
We are nowhere near that point here in the U.S. right now.

But god damnit
lets start having respect for ourselves and where we came from!
and fucking LOVE for the next person. Reguardless of how fucked up they are. Because i know its hard to bother yourself with the thought, but that brother, that sisters life is as complicated as the shit above gets. And they may have given up.
Make it your responsibility to inspire this person even if in a minor way. Because trust me... you bury them on the spot... they may come back to bury you! You BUILD with this person, and you are doing a service to our communal existance.

And whether you like it or not.
You can never leave community.



Jobs for everyone! Why not?
It cannot happen over night.
But it starts with changing the psychology. Then slowly policies will come which only give breaks to those who trully serve the people.

.
.
.