The U.S. continues to add jobs with the unemployment rate are a reported 6.1%. Those of us who took Economics know there are 1%-2% who don’t want to work regardless, so the economy looks healthy. You can punch holes in this saying the increase is due to low level jobs primarily. That points out the fact that we need to push our children toward high tech or pharma degrees.
I believe that this does not account for the people who ran out of unemployment benefits that are no longer carried as unemployed. The real tragedy is that there are no official statistics for the number of underemployed of which I am aware.
Sixty Five Million Left Out July 4 By Bill Quigley Over sixty five million people in the US, perhaps a fifth of our sisters and brothers, are not enjoying the "unalienable rights" of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" promised when the Declaration of Independence was adopted on July 4, 1776. They are about twenty percent of our US population. This July 4 can be an opportunity to remember them and rededicate ourselves and our country to making these promises real for all people in the US. More than two million people are in our jails and prisons making the US the world leader in incarceration, according to the Sentencing Project, a 500 percent increase in the last 30 years. Four million more people are on probation and parole, reports the US Bureau of Justice Statistics. On the night of July 4 and on any given night, over 600,000 people are homeless, according to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, a quarter of which, over 130,000, are children. Over 4 million people live in homes where each person lives on less than $2 per day (2.8 million are children) according to the National Poverty Center of the University of Michigan. Over 20 million people are living in deep poverty with incomes of less than 50 percent of the already low US poverty lines. About 5.2 million people in the US are native peoples, either American Indians or Alaska Natives. Nearly ten million people were unemployed as of the latest report by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Another 7.3 million are only working part-time but would like to work full-time and another 2.1 million people have been unemployed for more than 12 months and are not counted. Finally, the Department of Homeland Security estimates there are 11.5 million immigrants in the US who the government does not consider legally here with us. While some of these sixty five million people may eat hot dogs and watch fireworks, they are left out of the July 4 promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Bill Quigley - Law Professor, Loyola University New Orleans, CCR Associate Legal Director Sixty Five Million Left Out July 4
I won't quote simple minded so that we don't have to see the imo pointless drivel twice. Maybe my mathematical abilities are a little hazy in my old age but for me the examples given did not add up to 65 million. But using the examples given, the 6 million either in prison or on parole F'ed up and created their own problems so no sympathy here. Not really sure how the indians and eskimos fit in this scenario but I do know we are still paying the indians for land that we stole from them how many hundred years ago? We'd have been better off just buying it from them back then because they weren't the best businessmen. Look what we got Manhatten for. For the part timers wishing for full time how many can thank Barry and his obamacare for that? The illegal immigrants, well like they say, they can just go back wherever the hell they came from. Take the money we'd save that they are now sucking out of the economy and feed the hungry kids. But outside of the criminals and ILLEGAL aliens please explain to me how the rest do not have "life", "liberty" or are prohibited from the "pursuit of happiness".
I will respond to only the life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. The US has roughly three times the percentage of the population in prison than any other country. The numbers can be skewed in either direction, but over half of these people in prison are there over victimless crimes. This costs the taxpayers a FORTUNE. You can find various numbers relating to this depending on which way you want to look, this article states 86% of the prison populace are there for victimless crimes. Victimless Crime Constitutes 86% of The Federal Prison Population | Libertarian News I had a very good friend who died in prison, he was 19 years old, and a very gentle soul who had never harmed anyone. Many thought he was gay, but to the best of my knowledge he was not. He was raped and beaten beyond recognition, and left in the showers to die. His offense was possession of dangerous drugs, marijuana. He had epilepsy, and pot helped him control his seizures to a certain extent. The local police knew he smoked heavily, and literally followed him around (I know, because I was with him a lot) looking for an opportunity to bust him. He was busted numerous times in a short period of time (2 years?), and sentenced to 10 years in prison. So please, do tell me how that does not fit into your definition of "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness". Larry RIP Dana, 30 years later I still miss you, buddy!
Sorry about your buddy. There numerous drugs available to help control epileptic seizures that are probably much more effective than marijuana. Imo it's hard to call most "victimless crimes" victimless. If you look it's not hard to find victims. Look at the human carnage in Mexico by the drug cartels that is spreading to the US. Show me a street gang that does not profit from drug sales. With that said I'm for legalizing all drugs. Making drugs illegal does not stop people from getting them and that's obvious. So change the laws. But until then I am not convinced that "victimless crimes" are. Do I think potheads should be locked up? No .. so change the law. In the meantime like I said, there are other drugs available to control seizures so that people can continue their "pursuit of happiness"... which is pretty far off course from s-m's post and my response to it.
So, you admit the law creates as many or more deaths than the drug itself (obviously more deaths, MANY more deaths), in addition to making criminals out of persons who would otherwise be productive members of society? That, to me, is in direct violation of the right to pursue happiness. If the drugs were legalized would the gangs make so much profit from drug sales? The answer to that of course is no, the government would make money instead of throwing it away locking people up. Dana was prescribed a heavy dose of Phenobarbital, which was the best drug available at the time. It f***** him up so bad he could not function (headaches, dizziness, and constant vomiting were some of the effects I saw). Pot was a MUCH better option for him. It mellowed him out, and we could laugh for hours while discussing the finer points of racing motorcycles and fourwheeling. BUT, that was not legal, of course, so let's arrest him, claim he is a danger to society, and throw his @ss in prison for 10 years, so we can all pursue happiness! The most dominant feeling I had when I got off the plane in Manila when traveling back and forth, was freedom. Freedom to pursue happiness! Freedom like I had NEVER felt in the US. Now I live happily in the real land of the free. The US and it's millions of laws against pursuit of happiness can kiss my a**. Larry
Larry to a large extent you're preaching to the choir here. My argument was with the way things are it is not a victimless crime. Change the law. Personally I think that's overdue. I'm not up to speed on Philippine drug laws but with what little I know about them I dont think they afford you much in the way of your pursuit of happiness if that's someone's idea of it. Simply put whether laws are right or wrong or whether you agree with them or not if we don't live within them there will be consequences. Anything further and we'll just have to agree to disagree.
Your right! The victims are those rotting in prisons for hurting nobody. The victims are the middle class taxpayers who are paying $100/day plus to keep them there. I guess we will just have to agree to disagree. It is the generation before us, with thinking like you have just displayed (reefer madness comes to mind), that created these problems. Just because something is against the law does not mean it has "victims" and that person should be sentenced to 10 years in prison. My Father thought that way, anything that was against the law was wrong, period. Then one day DEQ came around and told him he had to remove 300 yards of dirt from his property that the COUNTY had put there. They cited laws to the effect fill was not allowed on a flood plane, and gave him the choice to remove it or pay thousands of dollars in fines. He paid thousands of dollars to remove the fill that the COUNTY had put on his property because they needed a place to dump dirt from a landslide that blocked a major highway. A direct result of the thinking of his generation. He ranted for years to anyone who would listen. It takes only a stroke of the pen by a fanatic in power to make these draconian laws, but it takes decades for the next generation to remove them. Bottom line is, someone who is hurting nobody should not be plugging up America's prison system, but there are many thousands of such cases, so many they have to turn rapists, robbers, and murderers loose to make room for them. Live and let live, I say. As for the Philippines, there is little if any enforcement of anything, therefore much more individual freedom. Larry
Nor does it count those that have just "given up" even looking for a job. Hussein's Islamic /Socialist gub'munt lies!
