Pat's Column...
That America created only 88,000 jobs in March, less than
half the number anticipated, was jolting news, indicating the recovery that the
White House has boasted about may not be at hand.
But in that March jobs report, there was more disturbing
news: Half a million U.S. workers (495,000) disappeared from the labor force.
They dropped out.
They are no longer even looking for a job.
Worse, this appears to be an inexorable trend. The
participation rate of eligible workers in the United States has fallen to 63.3%,
a level unseen since Jimmy Carter gave his malaise speech in 1979.
* I KNOW... I KNOW... YOU GUYS KNOW ALL THIS... BUT WHAT
PERCENTAGE OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE DO YOU SUPPOSE KNOW THIS...?!?!
These folks, who have quit working and quit looking, who
are they? How do they support themselves? What does this surging dropout rate
from the workforce portend for America’s future?
Disproportionately, the dropouts are young, black,
Hispanic, female....
(*SHRUG*)
Some have gone home to live with their parents and may
have re-enrolled in school to re-enter the job market better prepared. But
other indices are troubling.
[T]he food stamps rolls have soared to 47 million at a
cost of $80 billion.
(When George W. Bush departed, 31 million Americans were
on food stamps. Fifty years ago, there was no food stamp program. Yet, now more
than one in seven Americans is fed by government.)
* AND WE MARKET THE PROGRAM! WE "SELL" THE
PROGRAM! THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION HAS DELIBERATELY EXPANDED IT... LOWERED
BARRIERS... ENCOURAGED EVER-INCREASING PARTICIPATION AND DEPENDENCY UPON
GOVERNMENT!!!
In another shocking number, almost 9 million Americans
ages 20 to 64 years old — nearly 5% of the working-age population — is
receiving disability pay.
Among workers 55 to 64, 10% are on disability.
Few of those folks will ever enter the job market again.
* AND, AGAIN... THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION HAS DELIBERATELY
LOWERED BARRIERS TO "PARTICIPATIONS" - DELIBERATELY SETTING THE STAGE
FOR EVER-INCREASING DEPENDENCY UPON GOVERNMENT!
In 1971, only 1.5% of U.S. workers were on disability.
Yet, today’s workplace is a less hazardous and safer place than it was back
when manufacturing was a far larger factor in the economy.
* BUCHANAN'S POINT BEING: IT... MAKES... NO...
SENSE...!!! IF ANYTHING DISABILITY SHOULD BE LESS PREVELANT TODAY THAN IT WAS
IN 1971!
Other questions are raised by the Friday numbers released
by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
* UNCOMFORTABLE QUESTIONS...
Why is Asian unemployment 5%, while the Hispanic rate is
more than 9% and the African-American rate more than 13%?
* WHY IS THERE ANY MARKET WHATSOEVER FOR ILLEGAL
NON-SKILLED LABOR IN AMERICA 2013...?!?!
Do Asian-Americans and Asian immigrants have a superior
work ethic or superior capacities for work and success in a post-industrial
economy?
* WELL...???
And with 14% of the U.S. labor force unemployed,
underemployed or having quit looking for work, why is Congress about to grant
amnesty to 12 million illegal aliens who are taking and doing jobs that might
otherwise go to unemployed Americans?
* BINGO...!!!
* THE ANSWER FROM THE DEMOCRATS: MORE FUTURE DEMOCRAT
VOTERS.
* THE ANSWER FROM THE REPUBLICANS: WE'RE THE STUPID
PARTY.
Patriotism argues that we enforce the laws against
businesses that hire illegals and declare a time-out on handing out a million
green cards every year to foreign folks to come here and work, until our own
fellow countrymen are fully employed.
* LOGIC! COMPASSION!
As to why so many are dropping out of the U.S. labor
force, politically incorrect thoughts come to mind. Have we made idleness so
appealing we are killing the work incentives of millions, and perhaps tens of
millions, who would prefer not to work, if they don’t have to work?
* YEP...
In the 19th century, the phrase was “root, hog or die.”
Raise crops, farm animals or starve. From the Jamestown colony to the 20th
century, America was a self-sufficient society in which all understand St.
Paul’s epistle to the Thessalonians, “He who does not work, neither shall he
eat.”
During Depression days and World War II up through the
1950s, the necessities of life were provided by the individual himself or
herself or by the family. Today, however, government provides for almost all of
the needs of those who claim they cannot provide for themselves.
School breakfasts, lunches and food stamps take care of
feeding folks who say they cannot feed themselves. So successful are these
programs that obesity is most prevalent among food stamp recipients.
Then there are the...rent and energy subsidies and
endless tax credits for taxes never paid.
The impolitic questions that arise are these:
Has the welfare state killed the work ethic for a rising
share of the American people?
If you can live a comfortable life with your food,
shelter, health care, education and income paid for or subsidized, why work
when you don’t have to?
Today, the top 1% of Americans in income pays 37% of all
income taxes. The top half of wage earners pays 98% of all income taxes.
How long can one-half of America carry the other?
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