Unemployment rate jumps from 7.7% to 8.9% in 30 days

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It would be great to read a definition of socialism that doesn't come from a right wing American. That's all we get in the media these days.
 

This is interesting:
The income of the typical D.C. household rose 23.3% between 2000 and 2012 to an inflation-adjusted $66,583, according to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey,

Yet the average DC home price is $432,900. The historical standard is a 3:1 ratio (housing cost to income).

By any historical measure - the housing market must crash - or incomes must rise significantly.
 



Well, that's the simplistic reading. It is true that lobbying has become extremely profitable as comprise interests wield ever more power on the federal government.

However, the more nuanced, informed understand is that DC has diversified tremendously and is no longer the company town it once was. Young professionals live in the city in neighborhoods that were once run down and crime ridden as little as 5 years ago. Money has flowed back in the city as crime rates have dropped. It's become a much more desirable place to live for people who want an urban lifestyle, regardless of whether or not they work for the government. The population has grown, and is expected to continue to grow with the highly educated.

While federal workers tend to be highly educated, your average fed can't afford to live in DC and raise a family. They tend to live in the suburbs and spend hours commuting along 66 because Richmond refuses to give NoVA the money it needs to support the infrastructure it's population demands.
 

This article had a link to a story on why US income levels have yet to rise now since the recession is over

U.S. businesses still have little incentive to boost wages given that over 11 million Americans are looking for work. Much of the nation's recent job growth has been in lower-paying industries. And the aging of America's population could mean less income growth going forward since the retired often earn less.

"The bleeding has stopped, I suppose, but incomes have yet to increase," said Richard Fry, an economist at Pew Research Center. "Asset prices are rising, but when we look out at Main Street, at what households are getting, there isn't much growth.

Four years into the recovery, the big picture remains largely unchanged. The gap between America's best-off and worst-off remained wide last year. While incomes for older Americans picked up, median incomes of households headed by Americans under 25 fell 1.6%.

"The jobs that have become available are not as good as the ones that have been lost," said Mark Mather of the Population Reference Bureau, a nonprofit demographic research group.

Another measure of U.S. economic health, the official poverty rate, remained unchanged at 15% of the population, well above the 12.5% level in 2007. The poverty line is $23,492 for a family of four.

Economists say the government's official poverty rate, which was developed in the 1960s, doesn't capture many antipoverty efforts. Unemployment insurance payments are included, for example, but not food stamps—which have been growing rapidly in recent years—and the Earned Income Tax Credit. Government figures also exclude out-of-pocket medical expenses and don't account for where people live.

The report did show glimmers of progress. The share of Americans without health insurance declined slightly to 15.4% from 15.7% in 2011. The number of people with health insurance rose to 263.2 million, from 260.2 million in 2011, thanks to a rise in the share of those covered by government health insurance.

American households in the West saw a 3.2% rise in median incomes, a bright spot around the country.
 
And it will get worse...

Nearly half of U.S. jobs could be susceptible to computerization over the next two decades, a study from the Oxford Martin Programme on the Impacts of Future Technology suggests....“We identified several key bottlenecks currently preventing occupations being automated,” says Osborne. “As big data helps to overcome these obstacles, a great number of jobs will be put at risk.”...
 
^^^

At the law firm where I work, some of the secretaries are nervous over the Dragon, because the attorneys can dictate their correspondences on their own without using a tape recorder. Some use the Dragon and some don't. As long as those attorneys do their work the old fashioned way, the secretaries still have their jobs.
 
^^^

At the law firm where I work, some of the secretaries are nervous over the Dragon, because the attorneys can dictate their correspondences on their own without using a tape recorder. Some use the Dragon and some don't. As long as those attorneys do their work the old fashioned way, the secretaries still have their jobs.

Dragon isn't bad. It's still a little slow for me, but my wife uses it all of the time.

In another few years, I'll probably cut over. It just seems that when I speak I meander more than when I write (which is bad enough).

But to your point - given enough time, no job is "safe" from technology.
 
But to your point - given enough time, no job is "safe" from technology.

No job is safe from anything. Many articles about job hunting and career growth point out that no employee can just be one who simply comes in and does his job. Innovation is now the key to succeeding, so the company can continue to improve. So, the bar has been raised on what makes an employee, even a potential one, stand out.
 


But this view fails to recognize that savings from a more efficient industry, for example, the grocery industry, would flow back to the economy in one or more of the following three ways: lower prices (e.g., lower cost for groceries), higher wages for the fewer remaining employers, or higher profits.

I think we know which way the money flowed - to the profits (and thus - to the shareholders). Some things are cheaper - many things are not when adjusted for inflation and as percentage of historical income.

I'm fortunate enough to be in IT and wouldn't say I've seen the higher wages the author predicts (they've pretty much stalled across the board since 2000 - junior IT makes about 40-50 k, senior IT makes from 80-120k, top tier can make about 150k). While I am fortunate to be "employable" for the moment - all of the jobs I see out there pay about the same.

But I think most economist/futurist can now see that innovation and automation are outpacing the ability to create new jobs. And I think that's great - as long as we have a plan for those unable to find work.
 
It would be great to read a definition of socialism that doesn't come from a right wing American. That's all we get in the media these days.
If Karl Marx hadn't partied in college like a maniac, our standard definition of socialism would be very different today.
 
Wow, really? We're quoting Margaret Thatcher on socialism?

This is why it's impossible to have a reasonable discussion on the matter.

Reminds me of Russell Brand's brilliant op-ed when Thatcher died.

The blunt, pathetic reality today is that a little old lady has died, who in the winter of her life had to water roses alone under police supervision. If you behave like there's no such thing as society, in the end there isn't.
 
I'm not quoting him for any sort of fact or truth, just saying it reminded me of a particular passage in something he wrote.
 
Thatcher sums up the "socialist" solution to income inequality

Margaret Thatcher on Socialism - YouTube

Just Thatcher taking a rather stupid and simplistic view of things. If the income gap gets too wide, with the rich getting richer, the value of what the poor have drops. Her claim of everyone's income increasing was disingenuous at best as the rich outpaced the poor in their increase. The poor got less for their money.

Anyway I have little kind things to say about Thatcher. What does it matter also if Mr Brand was in primary school when she was in power? Should we discount your opinion as you were not even in the same country as her? Seems a trifle daft.

Anyway for the record I'm an avowed Socialist, probably more to the anarcho-socialist side of things to.
 
Wow, really? We're quoting comedians who were in elementary school when Thatcher was in office?

Well, he did grow up in the UK and knows more about the effects of Thatcher than the average American.

And he may be a comedian, but that doesn't mean he has nothing intelligent to say.
 
It doesn't matter what "-ism" we adopt, the fact of the matter is that technology combined with Big Business control of government is leading us all to a point where we better decide - and quickly - how we can best provide for everyone's basic needs - which includes adequate health care, food, housing, and security.

These are God given rights, not privileges. They are tied in the founding principles of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness...
 
Maybe this is the solution...

from Wired.com

For every video he watches, Angle gets 0.00004 bitcoins, or about half a cent, thanks to a service, called BitcoinGet, that shamelessly drives artificial traffic to certain online clips. He can watch up to 12 videos a day, which gets him to about six cents.* And he can beef up this daily take with Bitcoin Tapper, a mobile app that doles out about 0.000133 bitcoins a day — a couple of pennies — if he just taps on a digital icon over and over again. Like the YouTube service, this app isn’t exactly the height of internet sophistication — it seeks to capture your attention so it can show you ads — but for Angle, it’s a good way to keep himself fed.
 
No job is safe from anything. Many articles about job hunting and career growth point out that no employee can just be one who simply comes in and does his job. Innovation is now the key to succeeding, so the company can continue to improve. So, the bar has been raised on what makes an employee, even a potential one, stand out.

I thought of your post today when I came across the following article. Innovation and creativity will probably be the "currency" of the future...

A life, lived free of obligation leads to creation. Stagnation is a perspective that blinds the imagination. Value, should not be measured from the sweat off of our backs or calluses on our keyed fingers. We are no longer the gears of the system. If there were an accurate measurement for the value of a human life, I would weigh the ‘Condensation of Imagination’.

The Rise of Immortal Artists
 
Thatcher sums up the "socialist" solution to income inequality

Margaret Thatcher on Socialism - YouTube

Thatcher is one of the last people you'd go to for a correct definition of socialism. :laugh:

I don't understand why some people almost seem to refuse to accept the correct definition, which is something that is very widely prevalent amongst conservatives? And to a slightly lesser extent, liberals.
 
Thatcher is one of the last people you'd go to for a correct definition of socialism. :laugh:

I don't understand why some people almost seem to refuse to accept the correct definition, which is something that is very widely prevalent amongst conservatives? And to a slightly lesser extent, liberals.

The "correct" definition exists in a textbook. What is put into practice is something much different.
 
The "correct" definition exists in a textbook. What is put into practice is something much different.

But textbooks are known for being biased. What about those complaints of history textbooks leaving out events?

The best source would be "The Communist Manifesto" rather than something a school district put together.
 
The "correct" definition exists in a textbook. What is put into practice is something much different.

If 'in practice' is 'much different' to the definition then perhaps it has no real relation to it. :wink: On many occasions regimes have stood behind an ideology whilst acting on the complete opposite.

The correct definition is the only valid definition that needs to be referred to, not what anyone might think was put into practice.
 
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