May 5, 2012, Feliz Cinco de Mayo
Alrightie then. First, a huge shout-out to our friend the Unseen Editor, who is under the weather. We know what that's like.
As the Presidential election campaign season gets going (the "outcome" is irrelevant; Big Finance has bought and paid for both major party candidates; new Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson isn't going to be elected, nor is anyone who will not keep the wars going and the financial criminals un-indicted), one supposes things might turn on "the economy."
And so, we'll turn to this supposedly "wonky" (but actually incoherent) piece by Ezra Klein on unemployment, which can't seem to explain exactly why it is "workforce participation" seems to be declining (if it was not declining, headline unemployment would be well over 10%-- closer to the probable 22% or more it really is if we measured it the way we once did), but seems to imply that "baby boomers are retiring early."
Compare and contrast this Grey Lady piece noting just how many new college grads choose voluntary slavery unpaid internships in an effort to get in the door at employers. (The piece notes the jobless rate for recent college grads is 9.4%; keep in mind that obtaining work as a Starbucks barista or Walmart cashier makes you "employed.")
If baby boomers were really retiring in a non-anecdotal way, then there would be openings created at the other end of the pipe, ideally filled by much lower cost new grads. The reality is that the United States has successfully de-industrialized: what is left is a declining workforce, earning declining wages, just as prices of things are going to the moon, and an ever smaller number of "haves"... seem to have everything, as profits (especially to the finance sector) and CEO pay and finance bonuses have never been higher, as its quite possible we've by-passed neo-Victorianism and gone right into neo-feudalism. "Recovery"... yeah, right.
Hey, at least our prison industry is booming. I mean, have we not workhouses and prisons?