No offense intended but the definition of unemployed has changed since the early 1980's in how the statistic is computed and tracked. What about the 8.25 million that were unemployed during "W-1" ? I was one of those casualties and it sucked.
Rant On,
This is where it really hits home and gets personal for me. So understand where I come from when I lay into your flippant comments/remarks discounting what not being able to earn a living is about. Ever know what it's like to lose your job, be unemployed for about 5 months and then watch 2 planes slam into the WTC and effectively crush the rest of the hope you had for becomming employed again crumble and go up in a billow of dust & smoke in the streets of NYC ? Bush had a job for us, it was to go fight that war in Iraq.
And if the S&L Crisis during his father's administration wasn't proof of what Wall Street could do devoid of ethics and that "W" was bad for this nation, the son promoted the banking and mortgage crisis at every opportunity. It's no coincidence this nation is $ 1.5+ trillion into bailouts & economic stimulus packages and facing bleaker times in the coming year or two (or maybe even more). Mistakes are made to be learned from, we didn't, 50-52 % of this nation found a way to repeat the same mistakes of his father by letting the son get his hand at 8 years to ruin a nation. And boy did he make good on that time !
If you don't think the unemployment is going to be that bad, why don't you be the first to go sit on the sidelines and then wait for a lifeline to be thrown your way ? Then you can give us a firsthand account of how wonderful it is ? I went thru it twice with Bush's as Presidents. I've done my time in that regard, paid my dues that way and believe me, it's no fun. I had to rebuild my life after those Bush administrations. Everything I saved and worked hard for during Clinton's administrations, this community sucked me dry of. It's one thing to go thru a hurricane like Andrew or Katrina and know there was nothing that could've been done to prevent it because it was an act of God, a natural disaster. But to have to sit thru it and know that it was a man-made thing and the one's responsible for it was getting paid $ 400K/year or his buddies got sweetheart, no bid contracts and even bailouts, then awarded/rewarded themselves with $ 18+ billion in bonuses really makes you ill. There's a lot more money moving around than anyone really realizes and for a community to tighten it's belt and and tell you that you can't earn a living because it's not profitable enough for others for you to have a job/work will make you view your neighbors/fellow Americans in a totally different light. Bin Laden and Al Qaeda might be horrible terrorists, but the folks on Wall Street over the last 8 years makes anything they did seem like a minor inconvenience. I've had more than my share of the Bush clan in my lifetime, more than any one human being should ever have to endure. I survived it and I'll be damned if this nation ever has another Bush in the White House, if my vote has anything to say about it.
And just to give you a little perspective on this. When have you ever witnessed in your lifetime a new administration change that started off facing an $ 800 billion dollar bailout and $ 800+ billion economic stimulus package at ground zero on Day 1 ? When was said administration change marked by States like California and Kansas withholding tax returns/refunds because they are broke ? Yeah, it's not that bad if you're sitting at your ranch in Crawford , TX getting a Presidential pension and the biggest challenge of your day is getting on a mountain bike and riding the trails ? Or if you're collecting a VP pension and the toughest challenge you'll face that day is whether you're going to shoot one of your fellow hunters in the chest and face with birdshot ? Because that's what the last 8 years have sold your future for. And they don't give a damn how your life turns out during and after their time, just how they spend the rest of theirs. That crew won't lose any sleep worrying about if you can ever put a roof over your head, clothes on your back or food in your stomach, much more any family you currently have started. We've already seen the family in California, the one where both parents lost their jobs, kill their children and then turn the gun on themselves. That's reality for you, that's not an Ivy League educated "C" student, that can't speak proper English, yucking it up with his Dad's friends at $ 2,000 a plate dinners. The stakes were too high, we all should enjoy life, but not to the excess these people have at the expense of too many others. And I will take exception everytime when someone tries to diminish the unnecessary suffering all of us are going thru. Sorry for being this hard on you in this rebuttal, but trust me, there'll be a day when you retire too, you don't get any time back and what you don't have or get today and over the duration of your working years, you won't have or get that day either. Only it won't be so trivial then. Priced out of home ownership, you think paying rent is tough in this economy, it won't be easier that day living off of whatever fixed income they've watered Social Security down to. Today you're looking at $ 1,200 rents, maybe more in some places, how long do you think what you saved for retirement will last ? Healthcare ? what do you think that'll be down the road ? We all face the possibility of outliving our retirement savings and the cost of living far exceeding the retirement benefits. Still think there's a moment to take the next few years off in a recession to sort out what Bush is costing you in terms of earnings today ? Sure we all can ebay items for extra cash, but what if your health is prohibitive of being able to do that ? Just food for thought ?
Rant Off.
