Last week I told you about the Bureau of Labor Statistic’s (BLS) created entity call the Marginally Attached Person. A Marginally Attached Person is “Persons not in the labor force who want and are available for work, and who have looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months (or since the end of their last job if they held one within the past 12 months), but were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey.”
In real English that is someone who is not working and is not longer trying to find a job. To listen to the leftstream media, these people have stopped looking for work because they are so incredibly frustrated with the job market that they have given up all hope. They paint a picture of a person spending hour after hour, day after day, week after week, diligently searching for a job, any job. They fill out hundreds of applications and when called for the rare interview they are eventually disappointed.
Well, the anecdotal evidence I, and people I talk to about this situation paints a different picture. Most stories start out the same, with said person losing his job for one irrelevant reason or another, and then getting on unemployment. At that point their situation changed from
unemployed to “on vacation” The quote I hear often is “I’ll start looking for work when my unemployment gets close.” That means when the money starts to run out I’ll find a job.
But sitting at home and not having to work to get your money is additive. You get used to it, you want it to continue. You don’t want to have to get up each morning and be someplace at a certain time, and do what someone else tells you to. You want to be free to do what ever you want, and have the bills paid by someone else. I was seriously injured by a drunk driver 25 years ago, and I had money coming in without working. It was nice. Towards the end I was a bit resentful that it could not continue. But, do you know why I willingly and happily returned to work? I healed and that stopped the money. It was work or starve, in my mind. Milking the system, via my neighbors never crossed my mind.
The Labor Participation Level (LPL), which is essentially everyone except the Marginally Attached Person and the elderly, has shrunk steadily under Obama. His high pointwas the day he took office in Jan 2009, at 65.7%. It is now 63.7%. Each percentage point is about 1.5 million
workers. Some of that is due to the elderly reaching retirement age. But, that is mitigated by those turning 16 and entering the labor market. The number of people working in Jan ’09 was 142.2 million. Now it is 141.6 million. The number of MAPs was 2.13 million. Now it is 2.81 million, and steadily growing.
The Marginally Attached Person (MAP) still has to eat and support a family. So rather than go back to work a very large segment of the unemployed are devoting their time and efforts not to finding a job, but to milking the rest of us via the myriad of government programs to assist “the
poor”
In real English that is someone who is not working and is not longer trying to find a job. To listen to the leftstream media, these people have stopped looking for work because they are so incredibly frustrated with the job market that they have given up all hope. They paint a picture of a person spending hour after hour, day after day, week after week, diligently searching for a job, any job. They fill out hundreds of applications and when called for the rare interview they are eventually disappointed.
Well, the anecdotal evidence I, and people I talk to about this situation paints a different picture. Most stories start out the same, with said person losing his job for one irrelevant reason or another, and then getting on unemployment. At that point their situation changed from
unemployed to “on vacation” The quote I hear often is “I’ll start looking for work when my unemployment gets close.” That means when the money starts to run out I’ll find a job.
But sitting at home and not having to work to get your money is additive. You get used to it, you want it to continue. You don’t want to have to get up each morning and be someplace at a certain time, and do what someone else tells you to. You want to be free to do what ever you want, and have the bills paid by someone else. I was seriously injured by a drunk driver 25 years ago, and I had money coming in without working. It was nice. Towards the end I was a bit resentful that it could not continue. But, do you know why I willingly and happily returned to work? I healed and that stopped the money. It was work or starve, in my mind. Milking the system, via my neighbors never crossed my mind.
The Labor Participation Level (LPL), which is essentially everyone except the Marginally Attached Person and the elderly, has shrunk steadily under Obama. His high pointwas the day he took office in Jan 2009, at 65.7%. It is now 63.7%. Each percentage point is about 1.5 million
workers. Some of that is due to the elderly reaching retirement age. But, that is mitigated by those turning 16 and entering the labor market. The number of people working in Jan ’09 was 142.2 million. Now it is 141.6 million. The number of MAPs was 2.13 million. Now it is 2.81 million, and steadily growing.
The Marginally Attached Person (MAP) still has to eat and support a family. So rather than go back to work a very large segment of the unemployed are devoting their time and efforts not to finding a job, but to milking the rest of us via the myriad of government programs to assist “the
poor”
Perhaps the most lucrative way a MAP can get money from the government (who gets it from you and me) is Social Security Disability. This is becoming the new de facto long tern unemployment plan. It pays much better than normal unemployment and you can qualify if you can prove that you are suffering from mental illness or other deficiency. On the street, this is called “Crazy Money” For a good explanation of how it works read this article by Chris Orlet
Increasingly, according to Matthew Rutledge, as reported in the NY Post (02/19/12) an economist who researched this for the BLS, concluded that “Around 5.3 percent of the population between the ages of 25 and 64 is currently collecting federal disability payments, a jump from 4.5 percent since the economy slid into a recession. Mental-illness claims, in particular, are surging. During the recent economic boom, only 33 percent of applicants were claiming mental illness, but that figure has jumped to 43 percent.
What does that mean? Barrack Obama is driving people crazy. I say that mostly in jest, but the fact remains people are fleeing the workforce, because this economy is not generating jobs, and this administration makes it much too easy to not faithfully seek employment. There are jobs out there. I here story after story of small business owners seeking help, but not getting someone who is willing to work for near minimum wage. Why should they? There are 99 weeks of unemployment available and then infinite weeks of Social Security Disability checks after that.
I have sympathy for a lot of these people, but these government programs are leeching the will of those on them to fend for themselves. Worse still, they are creating a culture of dependence, as the children of these people have no role model to teach them a good work ethic. They have no one to show them that the right way to be a citizen is to get up each morning and earn the bacon they eat each morning. They are becoming like a baby cougar raised to adulthood by some well meaning animal lover. It doesn’t know how to hunt or to forage. If released into the real world, it will end up being drawn to humans and their pets for food. It will eventually put down, as a nuisance animal. But, we don’t do that to people. We will continue to feed, clothe, and take care of them forever.
The United States needs to reform all of these entitlement programs, starting with Social Security Disability. We need to make them accessible only to those who they were designed
for. We have a vicious cycle going on. As more and more people are taking, you end up increasing the taxes on those producing and paying for the Takers. When the Producers take home pay is such that they give up little by becoming a Taker, they don’t have much to lose and they join the Taker Party. Then their children have no role model, and never become Producers.
How does it end? You don’t want to know. But, here’s a hint; keep an eye on Europe.
Increasingly, according to Matthew Rutledge, as reported in the NY Post (02/19/12) an economist who researched this for the BLS, concluded that “Around 5.3 percent of the population between the ages of 25 and 64 is currently collecting federal disability payments, a jump from 4.5 percent since the economy slid into a recession. Mental-illness claims, in particular, are surging. During the recent economic boom, only 33 percent of applicants were claiming mental illness, but that figure has jumped to 43 percent.
What does that mean? Barrack Obama is driving people crazy. I say that mostly in jest, but the fact remains people are fleeing the workforce, because this economy is not generating jobs, and this administration makes it much too easy to not faithfully seek employment. There are jobs out there. I here story after story of small business owners seeking help, but not getting someone who is willing to work for near minimum wage. Why should they? There are 99 weeks of unemployment available and then infinite weeks of Social Security Disability checks after that.
I have sympathy for a lot of these people, but these government programs are leeching the will of those on them to fend for themselves. Worse still, they are creating a culture of dependence, as the children of these people have no role model to teach them a good work ethic. They have no one to show them that the right way to be a citizen is to get up each morning and earn the bacon they eat each morning. They are becoming like a baby cougar raised to adulthood by some well meaning animal lover. It doesn’t know how to hunt or to forage. If released into the real world, it will end up being drawn to humans and their pets for food. It will eventually put down, as a nuisance animal. But, we don’t do that to people. We will continue to feed, clothe, and take care of them forever.
The United States needs to reform all of these entitlement programs, starting with Social Security Disability. We need to make them accessible only to those who they were designed
for. We have a vicious cycle going on. As more and more people are taking, you end up increasing the taxes on those producing and paying for the Takers. When the Producers take home pay is such that they give up little by becoming a Taker, they don’t have much to lose and they join the Taker Party. Then their children have no role model, and never become Producers.
How does it end? You don’t want to know. But, here’s a hint; keep an eye on Europe.
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