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Menu: Home Grumblings UP A Nation of Cowards TIA is a PIA Used car kiddies State Religion Bomb Building Hints Australian bigots Critics sued E-book woes Government murderers Enviro-WHAT? All The News Minimum Wage Scam Shaving sucks Bad coffee sucks Dreams that Die My Evil Twin Corporate Puppet Corporate News Whores Mass Delusions Invisible People Employment Myth Diets suck Lewinsky Chewinsky Road bikes? Where? E-RATE follies Lying politician Links Contact Info My Resume My Public Key EMAIL Eric BadTux Portal[et]	Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics Or: The Myth of Full Employment I read in the newspaper recently that everybody is employed now. "Unemployment at 20 year low!" shouted the headline. Interviews with various employers bemoaned the difficulty of finding employees. Yet, I drive down Dawson Street and there's unemployed men standing on the streetcorners. Some of them are drug dealers, of course, but most of them aren't. They're unemployed. Except they're not. How can this be? Well, these people don't exist. Really. In an Orwellian manner, these people have been written out of existence. They're not employed. They're not unemployed. They just, well, AREN'T. You see, the Department of Employment Statistics counts you as unemployed only if you're registered at your local Employment Office. These men standing on the street corners don't register at the local Employment Office. They might have, once upon a time years ago, but long ago gave up. So they now do not exist. So it goes, in the United States of Self-Delusion, where we can write stories about a lack of workers at the same time that unemployed men stand on street corners.

Eric's Home Page

Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics

Or: The Myth of Full Employment

I read in the newspaper recently that everybody is employed now. "Unemployment at 20 year low!" shouted the headline. Interviews with various employers bemoaned the difficulty of finding employees.

Yet, I drive down Dawson Street and there's unemployed men standing on the streetcorners. Some of them are drug dealers, of course, but most of them aren't. They're unemployed.

Except they're not.

How can this be? Well, these people don't exist. Really. In an Orwellian manner, these people have been written out of existence. They're not employed. They're not unemployed. They just, well, AREN'T.

You see, the Department of Employment Statistics counts you as unemployed only if you're registered at your local Employment Office. These men standing on the street corners don't register at the local Employment Office. They might have, once upon a time years ago, but long ago gave up.

So they now do not exist.

So it goes, in the United States of Self-Delusion, where we can write stories about a lack of workers at the same time that unemployed men stand on street corners.

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Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics

Or: The Myth of Full Employment