The Unemployment Bubble

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Labor would still be using long poles to move large rocks, rather than earthmovers, if it weren't for capital and capitalists. The Third World has plenty of cheap labor - where's their great wealth?
"CEO bonuses, investor profits, shareholder dividends" - the necessary wages paid to capital, without which labor would be of extremely limited utility.

Dean of MN 12:40AM March 31, 2009

tony, with my pathetically short attention span i remained interested in your comment until you said: "Workers who claim to own anything find that they own nothing...and they see their cars repossessed, their homes foreclosed...."
as they should. would you propose they keep a home they are not paying for?
its called self-responsibility, or self-reliance. before the word "capitalism" existed, man had to prepare for the worst of times. people simply do not do that. they seek excess.

jason of VA 11:33AM March 30, 2009

Full employment is a bubble. Unemployment is when air is released from the bubble, as we've been seeing. There are two points to understand about the labor market. First, it provides the economic engine to purchase products and services produced by labor to benefit corporations and small businesses, and secondly labor pays the vast majority of taxes to support the government infrastructure. CEO bonuses, investor profits, shareholder dividends and other investment schemes that keep the wealthy in their mansions do little to stimulate the economy, especially because the vast majority of the rich hide their funds in tax havens such as bogus foundations that do very little public good. Trickle down is a stupid theory from Ronald Reaganites to excuse themselves from social responsibility and to justify wanton capitalistic greed that has made 1% of the population owners of 50% of the nation's equity, and the top 10% owners of 90%. Workers who claim to own anything find that they own nothing when they become unemployed and their employment bubble pops - and they see their cars repossessed, their homes foreclosed, and their credit rating fall below 500. We hear many of the wealthy have lost 30% of their net worth in the stock market. Big deal - so now we have nine/tenths of one percent of the population owning 50% of everything and 9% of the people owning 90%. What's new?

Tony Lee of CA 12:44PM March 26, 2009

If unemployment keeps rising, hilarity may ensue if Obama and Congress try to rush through Comprehensive Immigration "Reform." Obama, McCain, Durbin, Gutierrez, et.al., and all the rabidly pro-illegal Hispanics in the Obama administration may find themselves out of sorts.

Luther of IL 11:10AM March 26, 2009

Two things that I am looking for and maybe three.
1, CO2 cap and trade to become law. More lost jobs.
2, New reserve currency over the dollar.
3, Bond crisis. (To be blamed on republicans of course)
One other thing that will more than likely happen here is that the white house will get lots of tea bags on a holiday meant for fools. April 1st!

Tim of MI 12:14AM March 26, 2009

Under the guise of "free markets" the U.S. has given away its manufacturing jobs to cut-rate workers in other nations, even outsourced "Voice of America" news writing to Communist China.
Under the guise of "free markets" Congress continues granting worker-visas to foreign computer programmers who come to America to work for half-price and drive down American wages further. One example of this is at Target in downtown Minneapolis millions of dollars in tax breaks were given to create "good" jobs, and for a while the Target IT offices were filled with highly skilled local IT workers. Today 9 out of 10 Target IT workers are lower wage foreign workers in the U.S. on temporary work-visas. The U.S. workers are unemployed.
Under the guise of "free markets" our cities give the biggest companies like this unfair tax breaks to attract (often lower wage) jobs while small U.S. companies are strangled by the highest taxes. Those big companies not only don't give back as much tax, they suck the financial resources out of the community by taking the profits back to their HQ. Local, small company owners generally live in the communities where they do business and their profits are often fed back into the community in many ways.
The current economic crisis is the fall out of our make-believe free markets," which are really only free for the big boys. There's nothing very free about joblessness and crumbling infrastructure that is their legacy to the majority (95% or more) of Americans.

Wendy Pareene of MN 10:23PM March 25, 2009

The Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 did not prevent this by causing the "creation of jobs" that were touted at the time by the Republican sponsors. We had a "jobless recovery" after the 9/11 fiasco and now they're projecting another one.
No one seems to "get it" that higher taxes on corporate earnings are just as likely to cause the creation of job salaries and benefits (TO AVOID THE TAXES) as the other way around.
If you put up a choice to corporate America that they either spend it on people or spend it on taxes, they choose to spend on people. If you lower the taxes and INVITE them to get rid of as many people as possible to grow the earnings in the "low tax" environment, they will do exactly that. Why it is hard for smart people to grasp this is beyond me. It's basic. And it's the opposite of what the Republican economists tell you.

Muser of NM 4:46PM March 25, 2009