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Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Long-Term Unemployment

Business Insider has what it calls "10 Depressing Charts About Long-Term Unemployment."  This particular chart has me asking one question:

How, exactly, does Obama expect to get re-elected with that large a fraction of the population out of work for a year or more?  I know, I know, the Republican nominees aren't exactly something to jump up and down about, but still: more than 30% of the unemployed have been out of work for more than a year.  These are the times that you find yourself half-listening to paranoid sorts who claim the high approval numbers for Obama are because the polls are rigged.  I would be more inclined to believe that much of the population is too easily propagandized into believing that the economy is recovering, and their misery is just about to end.

3 comments:

  1. Half of the U.S. pays for the other half to live for free, subsidized at around 36K in sundry welfare disbursements as well as tax "refunds" to those who pay zero income tax.

    Of course he has their approval. Why should they care where their handout comes from.

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  2. Obama intends to get re-elected by blaming the phenomenon on the "evil rich people" who if left to their own devices would invest money to create jobs.

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  3. I know a lot of bloggers are pretty sure that Obama is going to win--they'll even point out that "I'm not the Other Guy" isn't really that great of a campaign strategy. While I won't dismiss the classic Republican Superpower of messing up an election that's being given them on a platter, the fact remains that Obama is preparing an election campaign where he's going to claim "I'm not an evil, rich, greedy Republican", and I don't think that's a good campaign strategy either.

    There's a lot of complaint that Republicans aren't focusing on the economy, that they are just fighting among themselves. I, for one, don't understand these complaints: of course they are bickering among themselves! They are trying to win the nomination right now!

    If, after things settle and we finally know who the nomination is going to be, and they still don't go after Obama on the economy, we'll know we're in trouble!

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