The labor force participation rate has declined from 66.5% in 2007
prior to the last downturn to 62.7% today. This decline in the
participation rate is difficult to reconcile with the alleged economic
recovery that began in June 2009 and supposedly continues today.
Normally a recovery from recession results in a rise in the labor force
participation rate.
The Obama regime, economists, and the financial presstitutes have
explained this decline in the participation rate as the result of
retirements by the baby boomers, those 55 and older.
It is not retirees who are pushing down the participation rate, but
those in the 16-19 age group whose participation rate has fallen by
10.4%, those in the 22-14 age group whose participation rate has fallen
by 5.4%, and those in the 24-54 age group whose participation rate is
down 2.5%.
The offshoring of US manufacturing and tradable professional service
jobs has resulted in an economy that can only create new jobs in lowly
paid, increasingly part-time non-tradable domestic service jobs, such as
waitresses, bartenders, retail clerks, and ambulatory health care
workers. These are not jobs that can support an independent existence.
However, these jobs can supplement retirement incomes that have been
hurt by many years of the Federal Reserve’s policy of zero or negative
interest rates. Those who were counting on interest earnings on their
savings to supplement their retirement and Social Security incomes have
reentered the labor force in order to fill the gaps in their budgets
created by the Fed’s policy. Unlike the young who lack savings and
retirement incomes, the baby boomers’ economic lives are not totally
dependent on the lowly-paid, part-time, no-benefits domestic service
jobs.
Lies are told in order to make the system look acceptable so that the
status quo can be continued. Offshoring America’s jobs benefits the
wealthy. The lower labor costs raise corporate profits, and
shareholders’ capital gains and performance bonuses of corporate
executives rise with the profits. The wealthy are benefitting from the
fact that the US economy no longer can create enough livable jobs to
keep up with the growth in the working age population.
The clear hard fact is that the US economy is being run for the sole benefit of a few rich people.
from here
Yes, things are bad for America's workers and let's not forget, for the whole world's workers - a fact impossible not to notice.
The big question is, how many workers whether employed, unemployed or underemployed can see through the gloom to the reality? Forget hope! Nothing will change, except maybe for the worse, unless and until we act together to cause this change. The abolition of this egregious world system called capitalism will happen when enough of us decide it will - when we decide and work for a socialist revolution to bring about a system in which, at last, people and planet will come first.
JS
No comments:
Post a Comment