Originally posted by: JDub02SSSHHHHHH!!! Don't tell my employer .. they keep giving me raises.
I don't know where you're living, but in most of the country, the economy is doing just fine.
Let's look at the Bush record.
First President to have a net loss of employment since the Great Depression. In the meantime, the population of working-aged adults increased significantly. (Using the Census Bureau's stat of the U.S.'s third world rate of population growth of 32.7 million during the 1990s, if you assume 3.27 million people per year and if half are working aged adults, you get 1.6 million new solid jobs needed every year for a total of 6.4 million jobs we needed to gain just to stay in place.)
Many of the new jobs being created are low-wage jobs and temp jobs. Few knowledge-based, high value added jobs are being created. Instead, businesses have discovered that it makes more sense to hire foreigners on H-1B and L-1 visas for far lower wages and to send knowledge-based work overseas for 1/10 the wages. As evidence, the US trade deficit reached a pace of over $600 billion/year earlier this year, and it wasn't all about high oil prices.
In the meantime, the nation's national debt continues to reach stratospheric heights and the amount of poor people allowed into the country from abroad via immigration and "illegal" immigration continue unabated, straining the nation's financial and environmental resources.
All signs point to the nation's becoming a third world country, the result of our having chosen to merge our economy and labor market with third world economies and third world labor markets.
It's only a matter of time until it becomes clear. National debts cannot continue increasing forever. We cannot remain a Credit Card Country forever.
Of course, if you have a nice knowledge-based middle class job and haven't been affected, it's very comfortable to continue to believe that the economy is fine and that everyone who merits a middle class job can have one if they look hard enough (the Myth of Meritocracy). In reality, scores of smart people with college degrees, including professional and graduate degrees, have been unable to find middle class jobs.