When the unemployment numbers are analyzed properly the real unemployment percentage is really eye opening. Examining the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) unemployment data does not truly have a complete story. To get a start with the analysis the U6 category needs to examined, but it does not give a true picture.
The latest U6 number is 16.3% which represents those people that are unemployed, employed only minimally, or working less than a full time position. What this number fails to address is the people that are not employed and are no longer counted in the statistic. If all of them were counted the number could be well over 20%.
This is the reason most people are joining or are involved with the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement and those similar movements in other countries. It is more than a simple demographic movement and everyone should consider supporting the movement or joining it.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau data, 2.6 million more people slipped into poverty in 2010, increasing the number of U.S. residents living below the poverty line to 15.1 % The data shows one million households went from having at least one household member working in 2009 to having nobody working at all in 2010. Official numbers show that last year the total number of U.S. residents living in poverty increased to 46.2 million people, up from 43.6 million in 2009, or 14.3 percent of the population.
At least 36 states in the U.S. are proposing laws that would require applicants for and recipients of a variety of public aid programs to undergo drug testing in which they would have to provide a urine sample. Most of the current proposals for drug testing focus on recipients of cash assistance through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. Some states are looking at requiring applicants to undergo drug testing in order to receive food stamps, heating assistance, unemployment assistance or Medicaid.
Over 45 million U.S. citizens, or about 15 percent of the population, now receive food stamps, according to numbers released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in October. This is the largest number of food stamp participants recorded since the beginning of the program.
While Americans are taking sides in the ongoing battle about the future of American healthcare, one underrepresented group is especially vulnerable: the homeless community. A nationwide study in 1996 found that only a quarter of America’s homeless population was enrolled in Medicaid. Most people in the U.S. think that everybody living in poverty is eligible for Medicaid, but this is not the case. Poor adults who are disabled or are parents are most often eligible, but for adults who don’t fall in these categories there may be no safety net available.
The Duke Center for Health Policy and Inequalities Research released a recent report saying that the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the south has reached “crisis proportions in the last decade”.
India Requires Citizens to Register for Biometric Identity Number or Unique Identification (UID) cards by scanning and individual’s iris patterns. Currently 37 million people in India have been given biometric identity numbers. The project aims at ensuring that poor people have better access to government and financial services from which they are often excluded. This may be a noble project but I would bet a similar argument was given to the Jews in the 1930s. Think it won’t happen in the US? When the NAZI party came to power, the first country they attacked was their own. And after Sept 11, 2001 who was the first group deprived of rights by the US elected representatives?
This OWS movement offers the most opportunity for change that the US has seen in many decades. Since most of the people involved are unemployed, they should seriously consider running for legislative office. Many of them would qualify for grants to run for offices and since there are 6,780 state legislative offices up for election in 2012 and there are 468 federal legislative offices available. Not to mention the number of state elected positions from commissioners to judges, this could prove to be the start of a major shift away from the current 2 party system that promotes cronyism and legislators for sale to the highest bidding.
Copyright ? 2011 JD Durham
JD Durham is a World Class Technician, an Automotive Hall of Fame honoree with 45 years experience in the automotive service and repair industry and a staff writer. Visit Straight Talk Automotive for scan tool obd2 diagnostic, and obd2 scan tool software at fantastic pricing.