A Lie That Serves The Rich
The truth about the American economy
By Paul Craig Roberts, John Titus, and Dave Kranzler
September 05, 2014 "ICH" - The labor force participation
rate has declined from 66.5% in 2007 prior to the last downturn to
62.7% today. This decline in the participation rate is difficult to
reconcile with the alleged economic recovery that began in June 2009 and
supposedly continues today. Normally a recovery from recession results
in a rise in the labor force participation rate.
The
Obama regime, economists, and the financial presstitutes have explained
this decline in the participation rate as the result of retirements by
the baby boomers, those 55 and older. In this five to six minute video,
John Titus shows that in actual fact the government’s own employment
data show that baby boomers have been entering the work force at record
rates and are responsible for raising the labor force participation rate
above where it would otherwise be.
It
is not retirees who are pushing down the participation rate, but those
in the 16-19 age group whose participation rate has fallen by 10.4%,
those in the 22-14 age group whose participation rate has fallen by
5.4%, and those in the 24-54 age group whose participation rate is down
2.5%.
The
offshoring of US manufacturing and tradable professional service jobs
has resulted in an economy that can only create new jobs in lowly paid,
increasingly part-time nontradable domestic service jobs, such as
waitresses, bartenders, retail clerks, and ambulatory health care
workers. These are not jobs that can support an independent existence.
However, these jobs can supplement retirement incomes that have been
hurt by many years of the Federal Reserve’s policy of zero or negative
interest rates. Those who were counting on interest earnings on their
savings to supplement their retirement and Social Security incomes have
reentered the labor force in order to fill the gaps in their budgets
created by the Fed’s policy. Unlike the young who lack savings and
retirement incomes, the baby boomers’ economic lives are not totally
dependent on the lowly-paid, part-time, no-benefits domestic service
jobs.
Lies
are told in order to make the system look acceptable so that the status
quo can be continued. Offshoring America’s jobs benefits the wealthy.
The lower labor costs raise corporate profits, and shareholders’ capital
gains and performance bonuses of corporate executives rise with the
profits. The wealthy are benefitting from the fact that the US economy
no longer can create enough livable jobs to keep up with the growth in
the working age population.
The clear hard fact is that the US economy is being run for the sole benefit of a few rich people.
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was
Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate
editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week,
Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many
university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide
following. Roberts' latest books are The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West and How America Was Lost.
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