Official unemployment rate 10.2%, ‘real’ unemployment rate whopping 17.5%

November 6, 4:24 PMPost-Partisan ExaminerD.K. Jamaal

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We tried to warn the Obama Democrats about the fake trillion dollar stimulus bill that would stimulate nothing because it was full of useless earmarks and payoffs to pro-Obama special interest groups.

We tried to warn the Obama Democrats that a real stimulus would include an extended tax holiday – allowing workers to keep their money.

Of course, that was an inexorable possibility for a government insistent on not allowing us to really know how much we earn and how inefficiently it abuses our tax dollars.

We warned against Obama’s miserable trillion dollar budget slush fund, arguing that Obama and Congress should focus on specific infrastructure overhaul as the quickest route to economic stimulus, increased commerce, job creation, and environmental impact.

We argued for a massive, multistate, national coast-to-coast transportation revolution replete with bullet trains criss-crossing the nation.

It would have created millions of jobs, increased the flow of tourist dollars, jump-started interstate commerce, benefited the environment by pollution reducation, and thus increased standards of living nationwide.

We tried to fight against the Bush and Obama bailouts of companies that we too big and mismanaged NOT to fail, arguing instead that failed banks should suffer the fate of all business and indeed all people who mismanage their affairs.

Of course, that would have meant the liquidation of loans, allowing regular folks to suddenly own their houses and cars and thus find themselves out of debt and flush with thousands of extra dollars each month. The Wall Street-Washington megacomplex could not allow that to happen.

But instead of making moves on behalf of the people – the Wall Street-Washington megacomplex, ably aided and abetted by the Obama administration and Congresspersons from the Dim-o-crat and Rethuglican Parties – decided to prop up the same bastards who caused the economic meltdown on the dime of those most negatively affected by that meltdown.

Meanwhile, Americans continue to lose jobs – the official government reported unemployment rate is at 10.2%. This is highest the official numbers have been in twenty-six years.

But the real story is worse. Official numbers do not include the underemployed, nor does it include the so-called “discouraged unemployed.” That is, people who want to work full-time and are qualified for full time jobs but who have taken part-time jobs in the meantime to make ends meet. The official figure does not include those who have become so broken by the recession that they’ve simply stopped looking for work.

When the underemployed and the discouraged unemployed are included, the real jobless rate jumps to a whopping 17.5%.

Nearly 20% of the country is underemployed or unemployed because we do not have a President or a Congress willing to stand up on behalf of the American people.

We voted these charlatans into office. We will reap what we sow.

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