Keep in mind, even as the number of first-time claims for unemployment insurance rose again this week, that the 10% U.S. unemployment figure understates the actual number of unemployed. Even the 17% underemployment figure, which includes those who are either unemployed or who are working part-time but would like to work full-time, fails to include many of those who have lost their jobs but, because they fail to qualify for unemployment, are not being tracked. I know several such people personally; one has been unemployed for over a year.
My point? Structural unemployment is a serious economic issue. But the solution is not to funnel more unemployment benefits to the unemployed. The best thing the government can do is to reduce the barriers it has erected to a vibrant economy, including oppressive taxes, fees, paperwork, bureaucracy, and regulations that repress business productivity and raise prices. By reducing these explicit and implicit costs, there is absolutely no doubt that the private economy will be able to employ more workers as it produces more output at lower prices.
The best thing we can do as private citizens and neighbors is to treat each other right. Keep the economy moving. Put in a good day's work. Volunteer or learn a new skill if you can't find a job. Fill a need. Buy smart. And, finally, elect business-friendly local and national politicians. It matters.
Hi Chris! I'm less optimistic than I was....I will believe a cut in government spending when I see it.....and think that only a change in power, if anything, will provide the impetus to make it happen so that the new guys can contrast themselves to the old. Save that, only a collapse will teach us the lesson we need to learn....and even then, there will be those, like Paul Krugman, who say that the "stimulus wasn't big enough."
Posted by: Sherry Jarrell | November 14, 2011 at 05:03 PM