When Will We Draw The Line?

There are many definitions for an economic Depression, like “a recession lasting longer than two years” or “a sustained downturn in economic activity.” There are others as well and almost all of them define our current economy. Unemployment has been high since the start of 2009 and is currently listed on the books at 9.2 percent for the month of July. However, there is a real unemployment measurement that incorporates both the unemployed and people who are “discouraged” from looking for a job. What most people fail to realize is that real unemployment is the total number of unemployed people in an economy. Real unemployment is listed above twenty percent and can be seen below as “SGS Alternate.”

Okay, so now that there’s no longer an elephant in the room we can talk about it freely. Obviously, this is a problem. We can see the magnitude of this problem especially when the definition of “discouraged worker” is brought into light. A discouraged worker in America is someone who has looked for work for more than twelve months, but has had no luck in getting hired. Now, there’s two types of discouraged workers, split into short-term and long-term and both are listed above. Short-term is the gray line above and the blue line is long-term.

The unemployment percent that is consistently shelled out by the media is listed above as “official.” But, really, there’s nothing “official” about it. As mentioned, this percent doesn’t include our discouraged workers, so it is listed at 9.2 percent. So, with a little quick arithmetic, we can see that the whole subject of unemployment is skewed. Especially when presented by the media.

This is one example of how mainstream media stretches the truth when it comes to the economy. A lot of people are out of work in our country and even more are being kept in the dark, away from the truth. The real unemployment rate went up this month, despite the media saying our economy we’re having an “economic recovery.” If this is a recovery, then I’ll show you a cat that barks. The numbers don’t lie, that’s the media.

America is in a Depression, we have been since the start of the economic disaster. When will we draw the line and contend that The People can do a better job than the politicians currently in power? If we don’t, then we’ll face more economic calamity and more exploitation. Now is the time!