Wait, so you're telling me that a statistic put out by the Obama administration is putting a positive light on the Obama administration by using false or misleading numbers?
The number is just that.... a number. While it goes up and down, we interpret it to mean different things, but it's just a number of people currently on a particular system. It is an indicator of financial strength, but not a very good one, because the number isn't complete in and of itself. They would like to make you think that only 5% of the population is currently unemployed. Add in the homeless. Add in day laborers who can't qualify for unemployment benefits. Add in the unemployable who have true disabilities that keep them from being able to work. Add in those who choose to maintain a single family income because they feel it's better for their family to have a stay-at-home parent and give up income potential to do so. Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. I'd love to see the real number because I'd bet it's actually closer to 40% of the population that is out of work, perhaps up to or over 50%.
Sadly, though, this administration seems to shift the focus to "income disparity" and the lack of a "living wage". They have shifted full time employment to mean 30 hours a week of work. Growing up, my dad worked three jobs at one point while at the same time starting a company teaching Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing to engineers at night. All this to provide for our family so my mother could stay home. These were not three 30 hour a week jobs. They were each 40 hours a week. When he could work overtime at one, he quit the other two to do away with the commute. It was a pay cut in one sense, but a pay raise in another.
Now, by dropping full time to 30 hours, people somehow have the idea that they now can ONLY work 30 hours and that in doing so, they must be able to afford a nice life style with a car, a home and a data plan cell phone. The answer - they deserve a pay raise. Since 30 hours a week at minimum wage only pulls in about $200 a week, nobody can be expected to live on that..... so they need $15 an hour to make $400 a week. Now we are talking. This is the mentality endorsed by the current administration. And they don't even have to lie to make it so.
How the heck did I get on this rant?!?!?!