By The Numbers Update, Part 3: No Jobs for Teenagers, Obama's Failure As A Perceived Leader And More

This will be the third and final post in this update to our semi-regular series, “by the numbers.” In this series, we look at the latest numbers as generated by opinion polls, government statistics and from other sources to see what the true state of the union is. Rather than rely on the lies and deceit of what politicians tell us, it is better to look at the numbers which define our true reality, not the mirage our politicians try to pass of as reality.

Unfortunately, as we go through our by the numbers review it becomes obvious that the numbers are not good. Spending too much on stupid stuff and not enough on the needs of Americans is the way of life in Washington, a way of life that results in no major issue or problem ever getting resolved. The first post in this update series can be accessed at:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2014/06/by-numbers-part-1-what-is-reality-of.html

1) One of the traditional measures of how well the economy is doing is the unemployment rate. In steady times, it is a good barometer of how well the domestic economy is doing at creating job opportunities for American workers.

But these are not steady times. The traditional measure of unemployment relies on a steady workforce employment run rate. That has not been the case over the past few years, despite the so-called recovery from the Great Recession. More and more Americans have become so discouraged when it comes to looking for employment that they stop looking and drop out of the workforce. This skews the traditional measure of unemployment lower than reality.

That is what is happening now. The official unemployment number is 6.3%. However, since the nation’s labor participation rate has dropped so low, reaching depths not seen since the 1970s, the real unemployment rate is probably much higher. In fact, members of Congress believe that the real unemployment rate and the associated pain is over 12%.

These members of Congress feel so strongly that we are using the wrong unemployment calculation that socialist leaning Senator Bernie Sanders and Republican Congressman Duncan Hunter want to legislatively change the measure to be more realistic, using the so-called U-6 unemployment number rather than the current U-3 unemployment number.

If the U-6 number is better to use, than the myth that the Obama recovery has been a smashing success is just that, a myth. With over 12% of Americans still without a job, over 20 million Americans, than the numbers are not good for the President’s and Congress’s economic policies, we are either still in recession or living through the weakest recovery ever, so say the numbers.

2) The liberal Economic Policy Institute recently pointed out that the economy would have to generate 7.1 million jobs to keep pace with population growth since the Great Recession. Since the current run rate for monthly for job creation is a little north of 200,000 a month, before taking out those Americans who became too discouraged to look for a job any more, you can see that we still have a long way to go just to get to an employment breakeven number.

3) Over the past two days we have looked at polling numbers that showed that Americans no longer think so highly of the President. Recent Gallup poll results reinforce this negative trend:

• Less than half of Americans feel that the President shares their values. 
• 56% of Americans believe that the President cannot manage government effectively. 
• A majority of Americans don’t believe he can get things done. 
• An amazing 62% of Americans do not think President Obama has a clear plan for solving the country’s problems. 
• 60% do not believe he works well with both parties in Washington.
• The majority of Americans feel that he puts his political interests ahead of the country’s interests.

All of these naysayers must be racists since it cannot possibly that the President is under performing in office [sarcasm].

4) The following numbers are really bad as they relate to teenage unemployment. It is critical that teenagers get job experience in order to develop a sense of self confidence and worth and learn to interact in a business and boss-subordinate relationship:

“These numbers are staggering,” according to Michael Saltsman, director of research at EPI. “Teens across the country this summer are missing out on valuable work experience as they continue to suffer through an extended period of high unemployment and difficult job prospects.”

But those experiences are getting tougher and tougher to experience around the country, given how badly the Washington political class has managed the economy and the associated economic numbers:

• Using U.S. Census Bureau data from May 2013 to April 2014, a recent analysis reveals that in Riverside-San Bernardino area of Southern California, the unemployment rate for teenagers 16 to 19 years old who don’t have a high school diploma is a whopping 54.2%.
• In the Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton, Oregon metropolitan area, the unemployment rate from that teenage population is 53.8%.
• The national average for this teenage group and skill level is 21.6%.
• The top ten on the list for worst places for teenagers to find a job are: Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa An, CA (39%), San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA (37.5%), San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA (35.2%), Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE (33.2%), Chicago-Naperville-Joliet, IN-IN-WI (33%), Pittsburgh, PA (32.9%), Sacramento-Arden-Arcade Roseville, CA (32.1%), and Baltimore-Towson, MD (31.4%)

If Washington’s economic policies and nonsense cannot create basic, simple jobs for our kids, what chance do they have for creating higher paying, better career jobs for them in a few years when they become young adults? Probably pretty slim, given the pathetic employment numbers today for teenagers.

5) We have already discussed the numbers of wounded and killed American soldiers that have died in Afghanistan during the Obama administration and how those numbers are much higher than the numbers during the Bush administration. 

But those numbers are only part of the story:

• Congress has approved $650 billion to be spent on the Afghanistan operation with a whopping $487.5 billion of that (about 75%) being budgeted and spent after President Obama took office 
• 75% of the $42 billion spent on beefing up the Afghanistan national security forces was spent under President Obama’s watchful eye.
• The total cost of the Afghanistan war from 2002-2013 comes out to about $7,100 per American who filed a tax return. But the annual cost per American taxpayer under Bush was $222 but the rate exploded to an annual rate of $1,329 per taxpayer under President Obama.
• For all of the costs in dollars and blood, under Bush and at the substantially higher rate under Obama, the Afghan poppy plantations have greatly expanded, from 75 thousand hectares in 2002 at the onset of the war to over 210 thousand hectares in 2013. 
• These hectares are now producing tons of poison that will eventually find its way into the U.S. and the blood streams of American addicts, imposing another cost on American taxpayers.

The numbers do not lie. Both Presidential administrations kept us mired in an uninnable war because of unwinnable strategies with unintended consequences. Obama’s numbers are just that much larger than Bush’s numbers with little more, if anything, in return.

So what did we learn from the numbers today:

• The government measures unemployment numbers in the wrong way and actually a deceitful way.
• The job creation numbers are bad.
• Americans do not see Obama as the leader they need in these tough times.
• Teenagers cannot get jobs in this economy. 
• Obama’s administrational spent far more budget in Afghanistan than Bush for similar, weak results.

The numbers do not lie, but the politicians that try to suppress them and the reality they represent do lie.

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