Over 94,500,000 Americans decide Not to Work!

Setting a record for the number of people deciding to ‘not join the work force’ has left Unemployment percentages uncertain.
The latest story of 5% unemployment is being hailed as a Victory by the perpetually surprised Keynesian Economist Class.
Given the record level of individuals who have simply decided not to work, or look for work, genuine mathematicians are left scratching their heads.
The Trumpeted 5% number is based on one the lowest levels of those wanting to work in the history of the United States.  In fact, the number of those who have decided not to work is roughly one Third of the Country!  That’s one out of three people have chosen to take a ‘different path’.
When you combine this with the 5% unemployment experienced just 10-years ago being assailed as a National Tragedy…
Serious thinkers must rightfully be confused.
The only conclusion we can draw from this information is Administration Number Monkeys will keep throwing their Poo at us.

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Number Monkey’s Part Duex

Following up with the Hairy Math used to generate an Administration Pleasing Unemployment Number… or at least the best they can fabricate from their backside… comes the Census Bureau.

A total revision of the questions asked households will render comparison to past Census Numbers impossible.

From the New York Times:

“An internal Census Bureau document said that the new questionnaire included a “total revision to health insurance questions” and, in a test last year, produced lower estimates of the uninsured. Thus, officials said, it will be difficult to say how much of any change is attributable to the Affordable Care Act and how much to the use of a new survey instrument.”

“We are expecting much lower numbers (Of Uninsured! – Mike) just because of the questions and how they are asked,” said Brett J. O’Hara, chief of the health statistics branch at the Census Bureau.”

I promise you that is not how it will be reported…

It will be reported that Obama Care is a Huge Success and we’re all better after we destroyed the finest Health Care System on the Planet and Replaced it with Socialized Medicine.  So Pat your Collective selves on the back… Comrade.

Should someone be asking “Why does any revision need to be conducted in the First Place?  If there is to be ANY revision of the Census shouldn’t it be to stop asking intrusive questions the Government has no business asking?  Might the revisionists focus their attention on correcting this instrument of measurement to perform exactly and only what the Founding Fathers intended it to?”

Nah.

At what point does the entire population recognize that the game is rigged and if it’s not there is some Socialist, somewhere, working on making it that way?

And if we Do Figure this out… do We, at that point, demand truth?  Some point?  Any point?  Do I even have a point?

I know… that would require paying attention which requires makinganeffort.  So, no.

But, just in case you didn’t think the Bureaucrats at the Census didn’t have a sense of humor!

“Another Census Bureau paper said “it is coincidental and unfortunate timing” that the survey was overhauled just before major provisions of the health care law took effect. “Ideally,” it said, “the redesign would have had at least a few years to gather base line and trend data.””

Well, Of Course.

There should be a laugh track played behind that paragraph.  At least then I wouldn’t feel like be intelligence is being assaulted.

Sorry to bother you with this… we can all go back to our beer now.

Wait!

A related post I just read from The Last Refuge:

“Five years ago many of us were talking about why the White House would take Census Polling responsibility away from the Dept. of Commerce.  At the time we did not know specifically why they were doing it – but we sensed it was nefarious.    We predicted it was a typical Chicago Politics strategy to mold comparative data that directly would show consequences to long-term policy.  We were right.”

I had forgotten about that…  I could blame it on the beer, but that would be ridiculous.

Number Monkeys

(Does ANYONE believe that the Administration Magically produced 7 million enrollees in Obama Care in just two weeks?  Bueller…. Bueller… Anyone?  Really?  We have Seen This Before.  In fact, we’re still seeing it with the Unemployment numbers.  Please re-read the below post, then ask yourself is Anything this Administration says believable?  Anything?  Then ask yourself, Is the Press now totally co-opted by the ruling party?  Are our Media simply Propaganda Arms of the Government?  It’s all so Incredible to be Unbelievable if it wasn’t happening right before our eyes.)

(And yesterday, Sibelius actually said that 5.3-5.4% Unemployment should represent “Full Employment”.  Not long ago a President was Condemned Roundly by the Left when Unemployment went over 5%.  5%.  Again… 5%.  These people know no bounds when it comes to blatantly insulting our intelligence.)

Why isn’t anyone asking for the exact formula used to calculate unemployment and then posting it on the screen every time the numbers are presented?  How hard can this be?

I contend that just like the rhetoric employed by politicians such as “Forward”, “Hope and Change” and “Country First” the formulas we use to get our numbers are always left intentionally vague.  Think about it for a moment… If you know exactly how the data is arrived at, you might be able to do it yourself.  And… if you could do it yourself then there is no way for any Administration to monkey with the results.

In other words, if you define anything, it will be used to measure your performance.  We certainly cannot have any of that in government.  And clearly we are willing to accept, allow, endorse this behavior from our political leaders.  Why on earth would you be specific when you can leave it all up to the listeners imagination?  If they like you, they’ll make it mean whatever they think is favorable, if they don’t like you… well, who cares?

So once again we have an unemployment number that is meaningless except that it’s bad, or good, depending on who you like.  Keep in mind, it’s the best one the Monkey’s could produce… and sometimes it’s better than the last one, until the Monkey’s revise it when no one is looking, and then it’s not… or it is.

My latest favorite bit of Monkey business has applied a number to those “dropping out fo the work force” and “those who have stopped looking for work”.

I’m not the sharpest bowling ball in the deck, so it’s probably no surprise that I don’t understand what that means.  Help me here.  Does that mean that these people have disappeared from the face of the earth?  Does it mean they have illegally crossed the border into Canada to find work?  Does it mean that they are no longer a burden on our already overwhelmed social safety net because they stopped taking welfare? (This one I would be happy with.) Apparently none of the above.  It simply means they are not considered “unemployed”.

Well okay!…  Let’s all drop out of the workforce thus solving our problem.

Frankly, I’m not sure why our government goes through all the posturing to create an idea that any of this is based in reason.  I would have more respect if they just came out and said “We made up this months unemployment number, at it’s X.”  (It’s been done before… FDR did it with gold.)  Then at least there would be some honesty, even if inaccuracy remains, in the system.

I can hear it now… “Mike, you’re just not educated enough to understand the complexities involved when trying to get an accurate number for something like unemployment. It’s just not that simple.”  Yes… Yes… it’s FAR TOO COMPLEX for small minds like mine.  I seem to hear this anytime the Number Monkey’s get challenged.  Well, yes, it is that simple which is why I’m educated enough to understand it.

Floating metrics are loved by anyone not wishing to be held accountable to the results of their prognostications.  “We created 4 million new jobs!”  Just don’t bother me with the fact that unemployment is going up, not down.  And don’t bother me with the fact that many of these jobs already existed but we decided to call them something else in order to count them.  I get to decide what job is and I get to decide how I calculate it… so SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP and stop bothering me…  As long as we let them get away with it then they will keep behaving like your little sister.  This truly is supposed to be the function of our news media as our watchdogs over government.  Where are these bastions of objectivity when you need them?

I guess it’s up to us.

So, let’s all agree on a single, unalterable, formula and stick to it.  We should also agree that people don’t simply disappear.  I’m sure all the media will jump on this idea after they read this post.

If nothing else it would be fun to watch the politicians screams out in pain after being shown the cross of accountability.  Remember, the formulas should not change from Administration to Administration.

And, let’s start making a public list of those “surprised” economists every time the economic numbers come out.  I think it would be useful for the news agencies (since they are incapable of doing this themselves) to finally figure out who not to listen to.  (For all you news nets out there, you can just send me a check for that one.  I also accept scotch.)

(Originally posted 091912… yet here we are again.)

(And Again… and again…)