Obama Administration = Most successful at reducing income inequality in 50 years

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.

woolfe9998

Lifer
Apr 8, 2013
16,242
14,245
136
I'd like to see the real unemployment numbers. I'd bet if they took in people who have stopped looking for work the 5% unemployment rate would jump to over 10% easy. Also, what about the underemployed. The college grads who are working for $10 an hour at Starbucks.

No need for supposition. Labor force participation is down 2.8% since Obama took office. Labor force participation has, however, been stable for nearly 3 years now. Also, labor force participation declined by 1.3% under Bush and that was before the recession hit in 9/2008. Then again, it isn't fair to either administration because LFP was at an all time high in 2000.

http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11300000

LFP is similar now to where it was in the 80's during the Reagan years. But don't let that put a damper on predictions of economic doom.
 
Last edited:

Juiblex

Banned
Sep 26, 2016
500
253
136
If obama did more it was more likely an accident than intentional. He isnt much different as the same people are in advisory roles and secretary positions. Ever see the movie inside job? One thing is for certain though i have less buying power today even though i make 50 more than i did in year 2000. Not to deflect but people always ignore cost of living in these discussions.
 

yllus

Elite Member & Lifer
Aug 20, 2000
20,577
432
126
If obama did more it was more likely an accident than intentional. He isnt much different as the same people are in advisory roles and secretary positions. Ever see the movie inside job? One thing is for certain though i have less buying power today even though i make 50 more than i did in year 2000. Not to deflect but people always ignore cost of living in these discussions.
Can you back that up - that you have less buying power today?
 

Texashiker

Lifer
Dec 18, 2010
18,811
198
106
--sees data that shows evidence of a thing
--says "Nuh Uh! It ain't that thing!"

wow.

I have been looking for three months to land a job. Nothing has changed in rural America for over a 100 years.

Where are the income producing jobs? It sure aint walmart and the dollar store.

Where are the programs? Where is my affordable college education? Where is my health insurance that cost as much as a cell phone bill?
 

Jhhnn

IN MEMORIAM
Nov 11, 1999
62,365
14,686
136
No need for supposition. Labor force participation is down 2.8% since Obama took office. Labor force participation has, however, been stable for nearly 3 years now. Also, labor force participation declined by 1.3% under Bush and that was before the recession hit in 9/2008. Then again, it isn't fair to either administration because LFP was at an all time high in 2000.

http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11300000

LFP is similar now to where it was in the 80's during the Reagan years. But don't let that put a damper on predictions of economic doom.

Anybody who thinks that LFP won't decline as Boomers cycle through isn't really thinking. It's a huge demographic bulge & also the reason we need immigrants to grow the economy.
 

Jhhnn

IN MEMORIAM
Nov 11, 1999
62,365
14,686
136
I have been looking for three months to land a job. Nothing has changed in rural America for over a 100 years.

Where are the income producing jobs? It sure aint walmart and the dollar store.

Where are the programs? Where is my affordable college education? Where is my health insurance that cost as much as a cell phone bill?

Job Creators let you down? Keep voting Republican if you like it that way.
 

Texashiker

Lifer
Dec 18, 2010
18,811
198
106
Job Creators let you down? Keep voting Republican if you like it that way.

I make money on the side without full time employment. Enough to pay my bills and a few extra things.

What I really need is health insurance.
 

yllus

Elite Member & Lifer
Aug 20, 2000
20,577
432
126
I have been looking for three months to land a job. Nothing has changed in rural America for over a 100 years.

Where are the income producing jobs? It sure aint walmart and the dollar store.

Where are the programs? Where is my affordable college education? Where is my health insurance that cost as much as a cell phone bill?
Where are all of the policies that Democrats have tried to enact that you and the people you vote for continuously decry, sabotage and vote against? Is this a serious question?
 
Last edited:

hal2kilo

Lifer
Feb 24, 2009
26,580
12,680
136
If obama did more it was more likely an accident than intentional. He isnt much different as the same people are in advisory roles and secretary positions. Ever see the movie inside job? One thing is for certain though i have less buying power today even though i make 50 more than i did in year 2000. Not to deflect but people always ignore cost of living in these discussions.
Our toys are relatively cheap these days. Computers, flat screen TVs, Smart Phones and the like. The real problem is housing, education, and medical which seem to have no normal market responses. How can the little people begin to own a home when they are being scooped up by the .1% with cash. So home prices are stabilizing but who but the .1% can afford them.
 

guachi

Senior member
Nov 16, 2010
761
415
136
I make money on the side without full time employment. Enough to pay my bills and a few extra things.

What I really need is health insurance.

If you don't have a job you should be able to get Medicaid. Unless you live in a state that rejected the Medicaid expansion.

In which case you should vote Democrat and get someone in office who will vote for it.
 
Feb 16, 2005
14,080
5,453
136
Waiting for my next payment and I will buy some.

Costing me a lot more than a cell phone bill though.
No way you're having issues with such wonderful folks as louie gohmert and ted cruz as part of your representation. suck it up buttercup, I believe that's the gop's healthcare plan in a nutshell.
 

1prophet

Diamond Member
Aug 17, 2005
5,313
534
126
Haven't you heard, three $10 an hour jobs is equivalent to one $30 hour job plus you can count it as two more people employed.

I like to use the economy that Clinton was praised for in the late 1990's as the standard when it was an employees market, surely all of you saying "
Obama Administration = Most successful at reducing income inequality in 50 years" won't be objecting to that.
 

woolfe9998

Lifer
Apr 8, 2013
16,242
14,245
136
Anybody who thinks that LFP won't decline as Boomers cycle through isn't really thinking. It's a huge demographic bulge & also the reason we need immigrants to grow the economy.

Yes, absolutely true. It should should be obvious from the fact that LFP was already on the decline during the Bush years. The recession seems to have sped up the decline. Yet, in spite of that, it hasn't really declined since early 2014. It's running pretty much flat for the past 3 years.
 

Jhhnn

IN MEMORIAM
Nov 11, 1999
62,365
14,686
136

HamburgerBoy

Lifer
Apr 12, 2004
27,111
318
126
Like I said, thank the Job Creators, keep voting Republican if you want more of the same.

Immigrants create demand. Demand creates jobs, at least theoretically.

Your opinion piece author cites no sources for his numbers, either.

Que? What demand do immigrants create relevant to this discussion? Labor is the supply. Demand varies according to the number of positions available due to trade-offs between wage costs and productivity gains.
 

zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
111,994
31,557
146
I have been looking for three months to land a job. Nothing has changed in rural America for over a 100 years.

Where are the income producing jobs? It sure aint walmart and the dollar store.

Where are the programs? Where is my affordable college education? Where is my health insurance that cost as much as a cell phone bill?

and yet you keep voting for state and local republicans, because you hate those free things that you now claim that you want. Whatever you do, though, please don't ever blame yourself. Just go get some stronger bootstraps.

Did you ever consider moving to a less-depressed shithole part of the country to somewhere you can actually find those jobs that you claim you need/deserve? Did you actually spend yoru formative years educating yourself and/or gaining the necessary skills to qualify for the more advanced labor force that you very well knew was going to be a major part of this economy years after your teenage/college years?

TH--did you actually plan to make yourself competitive, or did you just sit on your ass hoping to live your life as comfortably as you always would, doing nothing, assuming the future would never change--requiring you to apply yourself in some meaningful way? Did you never imagine that you yourself might one day become one of those forgotten low-skilled individuals that actually needs government assistance? Did your neglect in planning for this potential inform your years of voting against policies that allowed for these programs, all the while you criticize and turn your nose up at such individuals?

Point of fact: Are you now bitter that you have become that which you despise, and who do you actually blame for this situation?
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: ivwshane

zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
111,994
31,557
146
If you don't have a job you should be able to get Medicaid. Unless you live in a state that rejected the Medicaid expansion.

In which case you should vote Democrat and get someone in office who will vote for it.

heh, this was covered in his very short-lived thread where he was bitching about the ACA not giving him healthcare when it was, in fact, those that he voted for which refused the exact medicare expansion that he now needs.

I do wish for TH to get the help that he needs (how can one be expected to find and keep a reasonable job if they don't have the healthcare that they need?), but one must admit that there is a bit of poetic justice in the very situation which he intentionally created.
 
Feb 16, 2005
14,080
5,453
136
and yet you keep voting for state and local republicans, because you hate those free things that you now claim that you want. Whatever you do, though, please don't ever blame yourself. Just go get some stronger bootstraps.

Did you ever consider moving to a less-depressed shithole part of the country to somewhere you can actually find those jobs that you claim you need/deserve? Did you actually spend yoru formative years educating yourself and/or gaining the necessary skills to qualify for the more advanced labor force that you very well knew was going to be a major part of this economy years after your teenage/college years?

TH--did you actually plan to make yourself competitive, or did you just sit on your ass hoping to live your life as comfortably as you always would, doing nothing, assuming the future would never change--requiring you to apply yourself in some meaningful way? Did you never imagine that you yourself might one day become one of those forgotten low-skilled individuals that actually needs government assistance? Did your neglect in planning for this potential inform your years of voting against policies that allowed for these programs, all the while you criticize and turn your noes up at such individuals?

Point of fact: Are you now bitter than you have become that which you despise, and who do you actually blame for this situation?

Damn... the woodshed.. you took him there.
 

OverVolt

Lifer
Aug 31, 2002
14,278
89
91
If you don't have a job you should be able to get Medicaid. Unless you live in a state that rejected the Medicaid expansion.

In which case you should vote Democrat and get someone in office who will vote for it.
Being on medicaid is a lifestyle. You have to meet certain criteria and you are motivated to keep meeting those criteria. Unless you can land a job with good benefits you'r going to want to stay unemployed or minimally employed.

The ACA destroyed the working class IMO. The $15-$20/hr jobs without good benefits. It used to be in that income bracket individual health insurance was affordable. Now its not. The benefits are shit and the premiums have almost doubled.

Stuff like
PRN Pharmacy Tech
Apprentice Electricians
Bartenders
Waiters
Hairdressers
Mom & Pop Store managers
Painters