The Obama, Axelrod, Media Spin on Unemployment

It is amusing how Barack Obama, his Advisor, David Axelrod, and the Democrat-biased media are spinning the nation’s dismal unemployment statistics. Axelrod recently boasted to a TV reporter that “the Obama” Administration “produced 160,000 jobs” last month.

Axelrod ignores economists' estimate that the U.S. needs to create 250,000 jobs per month just to stay even and make a small dent in the unemployment rate. In spite of the 90,000 shortfall, Obama’s Administration are spinning the 160,000 jobs as a “triumph” because the shortfall is “less” than the previous month's.

College graduates who want an abundance of job opportunities commensurate with their training and skills, and still support Obama, are like Procrustes trying to fit a captive hostage into his bed. It is a “stretch.”

The Occupy Wall Street Movement was destroyed by Barack Obama when he did exactly what the “occupiers” were demonstrating against: he signed more free trade agreements that facilitated the transfer of more American Industries overseas to exploit cheap, foreign labor, and then “export” their products back into the U.S. tariff-free, exponentially increasing their profits. To see how Obama did it, go to:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/glenn-hurowitz/obama-free-trade_b_1003846.html

The 8.3% unemployment rate does not reflect the actual number of people who are unemployed, or underemployed. Experts say it is closer to 15.3% if proper adjustments are made. After a period, usually 90 days, the Labor Department removes unemployed job applicants from the unemployed rolls and transfers them to an “unemployable” status. This causes an immediate drop in the “unemployed” rolls. This artificial reduction in the unemployed is an ongoing cycle that repeats itself every 90 days, or so, and each time it hap;ens, the Obama Administration is quick to point it out with optimism. The 8.3% would be higher if many (underemployed) college graduates and other skilled workers were not working part-time at the minimum wage in such service jobs as waiters and waitresses. Obama's extension of unemployment benefits is just a strategy for “buying time,” until after the election in November.

David Axelrod’s spin on unemployment figures can be illustrated in the following allegory:

Two 4-H club boys each have an acre of land on which to grow corn. Boy #1 grows only one bushel of corn on his acre, which he takes to the annual county fair in an elegantly-decorated bushel basket to exhibit. Boy #2 grows ten bushels of corn on his acre, and he takes the ten bushels to the fair to exhibit in ordinary bushel baskets. When a curious lady visitor asks how much land they each farmed, and asks the reason for the disparity, Boy #1 acknowledges the disparity but exuberantly answers, “Yes, but look inside my basket: it contains over ten thousand kernels of corn!”

That spin by 4-H boy #1 is an appeal to the same low mental capacity that David Axelrod is appealing to. The deficiency reflects the result of Obama's War on Capitalism, and his stated Marxist objective of “redistributing the wealth.” He is driving industry abroad, killing domestic incentive and supressing the competitive spirit the way Marxism suppressed it during the 70-year experiment of the USSR. Private entrepreneurs are "standing down," waiting to see if there is a future to capitalism. It all depends upon whether Obama wins election, and if he does, the answer is "no," at least not for four more years, and the damage he will do will stay with us for many years to come.