Unemployment statistics, per capita income, etc

[Sava]

Um... this isn't a fallacy. Lawsuits costs a HELL of a lot of money, and there are plenty, plenty, plenty of dumb lawsuits filed every day.

Hell, why do you think doctors in many states went on strike because of the cost of malpractice suits? Because when you lose one of them, you lose BIG!

Though their probably should not be a cap on punitative damages. They all get massively reduced on appeal, anyway.

Trust me Imran, those costs pale in comparison to the money insurance companies have lost in investments. Newsweek had a wonderful article on the subject. The total cost of lawsuits have barely increased over the past 2 years, yet the cost of insurance has sky-rocketed. And you know what's funny? It parallels almost exactly the losses of insurance companies' investments. I know it's tough to admit the people you support are wrong, but Bill Frist and company are wh0res for the insurance companies. Don't worry though, Democrats are wh0res to others. Sure trial lawyers will be affected, but again, it won't even come close to the amount of money that insurance companies will make.

I'm at least glad that we agree on the cap issue.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

Sure, if you're a CEO or educated middle class worker, capitalism is working for you. But tens of millions are being left behind. Many people see numbers like 5%, 6% unemployment and think this is small. Wrong... 5% or 6% represent large numbers of people.Sure, if you're a CEO or educated middle class worker, capitalism is working for you. But tens of millions are being left behind. Many people see numbers like 5%, 6% unemployment and think this is small. Wrong... 5% or 6% represent large numbers of people.

Sure, 5% is a lot, but how much percent of that is between the age of 16 and 18 and not working.

If the goal of economic stimulus is to improve the quality of life for the people, then we should be putting the money to areas that directly affect this. Education is the single most important factor in determining one's potential earning power.

Lets assume that everyone in the US gets a college level education. None of them would want to work at mcdonalds, or work as construction workers, or be farmers. So, to do these jobs, they demand high wages. Corporations cannot hack a profit anymore, so they move oversees 'depriving hard working americans of their jobs' to 'exploit cheap labor.' These companies wouldnt move over there if it wasnt for increasing costs.
These companies leave, and you have structural unemployment, one of the worst forms of it, because these people need to be reeducated.

You can't have it both ways.

Another side effect of everyone asking for high salaries will be highehr inflation. People will demand highher wages to keep up their real earnings, and when everyone does that, it increases inflation, thus starting the cyle again.

Investment in human capital (education) is not short term and takes a long time for any effects to be shown.

(i can do graph too if you wants it)

[Provost Harrison]

To be fair, there is always a certain amount of frictional unemployment, eg, 1% at least, of people moving between jobs and only unemployed short term and quite often have that period of unemployment sorted out anyway...

[Sava]

But Lawrence, with a more educated work force, it would increase demand for more efficient processes. Take automation for example... increased techonology decreases the demand for factory workers. Sure, there will always be demand for lower paying jobs in the service industry, but perhaps the US could intergrate this with immigration programs and/or youth work programs. Or at least create a more efficient healthcare and education system so that someone could work at McDonald's and support themselves. Or perhaps we should link minimum wage to the rate of inflation. The spending power of minimum wage has gone down significantly since the late 60's. I'm not concerned with unemployment figures as much as I am poverty in general.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

THis page takes a while to load

Sava - what employers will do first when face with increasing costs is to replace workers with machines to increase efficiency. Most of the time, if there is a Union there, that won't happen. So the company leaves . . . and goes to a country where there is no capital (machines) and replaces its US machines with 3rd world labor.

This is where I stand on the issue.
There should be no minimuim wage. Instead, the government should provide healthcare, education for free. Also full retirement benefits so you dont have to live in a gutter. The lowest 10% of america should not be taxed at all. Speeding tickets should be based on a percentage of your income.

[GePap]

I do echo Sava's question about standard of living being measured by PCI. europe and the uS are a very simple exmaple. The PCI in the US is 25% higher on average, but is the standard of living of the average European 25% lower than that of an American?

Many europeans take 8 weeks of more vacation: how does one measure how this relates to standard of living as compared to the 2 weeks most American workers get? My guess is that Car ownership in europe is significantly lower then the US (specially when it comes to multiple cars, or the 16 year old of the family having their own car), and yet, do to geography and public transit that works, its not like not having a car limits the ability of people to get to where they need or want to go.

[Sava]

I agree LoA

[Lawrence of Arabia]

GePap - by PCI, do you mean Per Capita Income? Does this mean GDP per capita? Sorry, but I'm confused.

[Wraith]

--"In the sense of capitalism not working, my reasoning is that 40 million Americans don't have health care"

Just to chime in here, let mention the HMO Act of 1973. Check US health insurance coverage over time...

--"one in four adults cannot read at a high school graduate level,"

Who's running the schools?

--"and in addition to unemployment, a lot of jobs are not enough for people to survive on."

Well, it does help when you don't need two people working just so one can cover the taxes for the other.

Wraith
"Paris gets fed!"
-- Frédéric Bastiat

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Ramo
If the distribution is Gaussian, there wouldn't be any skew and the mean would be the same thing as the median and mode.

Not exactly.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Lawrence of Arabia
Supply and demand will only explain situations where there is not a market failure.

So you are denying that the classic ecnomics is incomplete?

[Jaguar]

Re: Unemployment statistics, per capita income, etc

Originally posted by Sava
I'm retarded and need guidance from more experienced and knowledgable 'Poly members.

Very tempting sig material, but I respect you enough that I will refrain.

[Sava]

Go ahead if you want, I'm honored to be sig material. That's certainly not the worst thing I've said about myself

[Lawrence of Arabia]

So you are denying that the classic ecnomics is incomplete?

No. I am saying that classic economics (based on the rationality law) is not incomplete.
Demand and supply would be incomplete if there was no rule for market failure (which is when the price and quantity of a good is no longer being determined by market forces)