What is wrong with that explanation, even if I agreed with it, is that it ignores the "free rider" phenomenon of not just the developing world, but developed regions of Europe and Asia as well. Plus, most of the countries "we" have bombed and occupied in recent decades had committed no acts of war against "us."
THE DEVELOPED WORLD free riders are not going to be going into the Third World shitter with us. We are going all by ourselves this time because the welfare warfare state has permanently bankrupted this country and this country alone.
I guess "we" could fire off all the nukes as we go under and the fedgov officially defaults, in a sort of "if Uncle Sam ain't happy, ain't nobody happy" fit.
The US elites designed that system just after WWII. The free rider issue, though I believe it's not as significant as you do, does not affect our elites. They are the first to make money from wars, defending Europe, maintaining exorbitant defense budgets, etc...
The bottom 99% is increasingly irrelevant and not part of the dialogue. Your point is moot to the decisionmakers.
I very much doubt the 17% figure. Historically unemployment by women wasn't counted as unemployment, but nowadays are. So it's very much likely that total unemployment is in line with history.
However, we should all be worried about the depreciation of wages for the regular folks, and the increase in wages for the bankers and the rich. It could create a country like brazil, which is fiscally very healthy, but socially very much in trouble. We are already seeing the slums rise in the US. It's only a matter of time before the suburbs and gang controlled areas become real slums for the white american.
"All in all, a disappointing jobs report. Yes we are making some progress, but it is not nearly fast enough. The unemployment rate is now far above the peak seen even in the "more adverse" scenario of the bank stress tests. People who are out of work for extended periods of time are going to have a hard time paying their mortgages. This means more foreclosures are going to be in the pipeline, and hurting the earnings of major mortgage lenders like Bank of America as well as Fannie and Freddie. By extension, it is also going to hurt us, the taxpayers, who now own 80% of both of them."
Apparently the average unemployment right now is just over 6 months. That's a long time, unemployment benefits or not. I think I was out about 5 years ago for the 13 weeks but found a job OK at the end (and I didn't even start looking until 2-3 weeks in). Today forget about it.
Funny though, I quit my TV job a month ago; job posting's been up for 6 weeks and looks like it's not been filled. Something like that would have stacks of people applying and no problem finding a replacement, even though it doesn't pay much at all. Of course now I'm doing much better as an IC/1099 and have a shot to parlay it into even bigger money-making opportunities. (contract with the company I'm with right now is for 2 years but is in the mortgage/real estate side so the job itself won't be going away anytime soon)
It's a fight out there and Darwinism is really going to take shape in many spots.
The US elites designed that system just after WWII. The free rider issue, though I believe it's not as significant as you do, does not affect our elites. They are the first to make money from wars, defending Europe, maintaining exorbitant defense budgets, etc...
The bottom 99% is increasingly irrelevant and not part of the dialogue. Your point is moot to the decisionmakers.
Actually, the 'free rider' paradigm is probably the number one maintainer of our reserve currency status. Lets us print and extract the seignorage that has benefitted our population with an increasing standard of living (in nominal terms) over time. Make those folks pay for their own defense and withdraw the Pax Americana and things will get chaotic real fast. Bad for business/ global trade. And bad for a career politician's chances of getting re-elected. Promotes demagoguery, which is bad for everyone in the status quo.
That last point, by the way, is relevant to the discussion. When you force the upper middle and lower upper classes into the proletariat, bad things historically happen. And then you have the voting power to make it happen through demagoguery. Some astute politicians are already seeing this point and positioning accordingly.
