Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Number of Young Adults Not in School and Not Working Hits 50 Year High

LBJ's great society plan is really working out well.

Nearly 6.5 million U.S. teens and young adults are neither in school nor working, according to a new report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

The most recent "Kids Count" report, one of the most widely cited surveys of how youth fare in the United States, found that young people aged 16 to 24 are facing serious barriers to successful careers as youth unemployment has reached its highest level since World War II. Only about half of young people in that age group held jobs in 2011, according to the study, HoffPo reports.


The employment rate for teens between the ages of 16 and 19 has fallen 42 percent over the last decade: 2.2 million teens and 4.3 million young adults aged 20 to 24 are neither working nor in school. Of those without school or work, 21 percent -- or 1.4 million -- are young parents.

North Dakota, Nebraska and Minnesota had the highest rates of employment among 20- to 24-year-olds. Laura Speer, one report's authors, told Minnesota Public Radio.

Attempting to get these kids back in school, given the poor quality of public school education, is not the answer. The only solution is to eliminate the minimum wage so that they can be hired at a wage that is below their limited hourly productivity and second to eliminate LBJ launched government handouts, which provide incentive for these youth to not work and have children of their own.

43 comments:

  1. Hey Robert,
    Have you considered switching your RSS feed to Full feed instead of snippet? It would make for a much more comfortable experience.
    Instead of driving more traffic to the site, I think it does the opposite.
    Just my two cents.
    Thanks.

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  2. I would imagine 75% of America does not understand this

    "be hired at a wage that is below their limited hourly productivity"

    ReplyDelete
  3. Maybe we should put a tracking chip in an Id card so we know where they are...? Better yet, since they may refuse... I mean "lose" the cards, we could just implant the chip under their skin! Say... On the hand, or maybe the forehead!

    Yeah! That's the ticket!

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  4. It's what they should do, but it will never happen. The big government Keynesians can barely tolerate any hint of deflation of their precious asset bubbles - but wage deflation? Not even Hoover wanted that.

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  5. "LBJ's great society plan is really working out well."

    I'm no fan of LBJ, but you don't just supposed corporate outsourcing, automation, and Obamacare might not be the real problem do you?

    I think this piece is more propaganda then fact.

    No, I'm not a Keynesian, either. I'm an economic atheist.

    "eliminate LBJ launched government handouts" What handouts?

    And what wage do you think the 'free market' will produce? $2.00 dollars an hour? How about free! Why not have them work for free!

    Then everybody can be employed! Bring back the share-croppers!

    Boy, there's a lot of Romney's in this world.

    I noticed too, you've decided all unemployed workers have no education. The completely ballistic profile of student loan defaults is here:

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-11-27/scariest-chart-quarter-student-debt-bubble-officially-pops-90-day-delinquency-rate-g

    So, lessee, unemployed students just lost the ability to find or retain work, and if we just lowered the minimum wage, they could pay off their $20,000 dollar loan, but, they have no value, right? They're really uneducated because of the Great Society, ah, yeah...

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    Replies
    1. Mark-

      Unlike religion, there is no such thing as an economic agnostic or atheist. Like science, or math, it either is or isn't. Economics is logic. Please read "Economics in One Lesson" by Hazzlitt and try to understand that Wenzel, Rossini and other posters are not trying to "disenfranchise" or make slaves of people- we just happen to understand the mechanics of economics, and the system of omnipotent government is destroying any ability for these kids to survive, let alone thrive.

      Please!!!!

      Delete
    2. Mark-

      I think you are correct that there is more than meets the eye than the work of a president many years ago.

      I remember reading some books at my alma mater for an incredible economics class. In the 60s, educated people thought that by now there would be massive unemployment (60, 70%) due to automation. In fact, they were scared. Looking back at my work for the class, I believe the relevant text was: "Effects of Technological Change on the Nature of Jobs" by Louis Levine. I think it was a collection of essays about automation by various people. The nature of skilled versus unskilled jobs is, in my opinion, a very interesting subject in economics and is becoming increasingly more relevant.

      Instead, we had a significant shift from the manufacturing sector to the services sector, but did not lose nearly as many jobs as predicted. Automation (as part of the many improvements in the factory) has likely been an enormous part of the increase in quality of life over the past several decades, but it is so hard to conclusively show that due to the effects of tariffs, taxes, and inflation on the cost of goods.

      Anyways, like Dale says, economics is not a religion. It's supposed to be logical. Think of it this way:

      1 The minimum wage prevents employment of people who would accept jobs at less than the mandated amount.

      2 If people could accept these jobs, total unemployment would be lower and total employment would be higher.

      3 Total employment being higher means higher economic output.

      4 Higher economic output means life gets better for everyone *faster* =) for the many reasons you see described here on this blog and elsewhere

      You're right about something though. Ideally, almost nobody would have to be employed, because everything (or at least a basket of "necessary" consumer items that maximize utility) would be free. This was, in fear, believed to be the future result of automation in the 60s. We're not there yet though. Whether or not these students are unemployed because of their skills is irrelevant. If they can get jobs below the minimum wage, they should be able to get them.

      Forgive my highly off topic discourse. I'd now like to point out something far more relevant to your points. There are some countries that have a tiered minimum wage based on age. Australia is one of them. The minimum wage starts very small for those younger than 16 years, and gradually increases to the adulthood amount. If you think about it, this is an extremely logical compromise to not getting rid of the minimum wage, but having it make sense.

      The classic argument for a minimum wage is that it must support livable conditions. We know that the minimum wage is bad, but its effects are far worse for youth, who often desperately need to gain experience in the private sector. These youth are often *dependents*, so they do not need the full minimum wage to support "livable" conditions. Thus the tiered minimum wage is an excellent idea that is far more sensible than the alternative, which is to cause drastic unemployment in younger age groups (see US and Europe).

      Delete
    3. @Frank

      I think if we truly downsized government, national, state, county, local, to what is needed, rather then what we currently have, We would probably see much worse than the 25% unemployment of the 1930's depression. Now, stop the colonial wars, bring the troops home, knock the pins out of Lockheed Martin, Boeing and others that feed off of fiat money and war, and your unemployment goes higher yet. I suspect, the 'true' employment of the nation in 'needed' work, is probably 30-40% or less of the current workforce. I.E. around a 50-60 % unemployment rate. Being we are a warfare-welfare nation, eliminate most of these activities, there'll be very little left. This is my belief of what a 'free market' will produce at this point, because we waited so long to try it. (If it were indeed tried, now.)

      I think once this house of cards fails, we will see Greek-like social problems, and then it gets worse from there.

      I do understand the moral hazard of keeping vast numbers of people alive when you really have no economy, but what else do you do?

      If this civilization fails, do we want the ethics and ambitions of China to be the beacon of the world?

      By the way, I like your idea of a tiered minimum wage. That makes sense to me.

      Something like that needs to be done. I don't however believe endless reductions in the minimum wage as some promote will be a big jobs creator. I suspect if people were willing to work for 'free'. you still wouldn't have anywhere near full employment, given my sense of how little real work there really is.. The difference (multiple) as a ratio between the top and bottom wage levels in this society has zoomed into the multiple hundreds to one and keeps climbing. If the average minimum wage was $3.50 instead of $7.00, the ratio of higher to lower salaries would of course double, you can do it that way, or you can just let inflation reduce lower level wages while the upper tier increases their take at will, as we have been doing, and expect employment to improve, which gets you the same result, a little slower, of lowering the minimum wage..

      This hasn't worked.

      I do recognize the economic, theoretical implications of what I'm saying, and maybe it won't work, but cheerleading for austerity, when that's a sure collapse scenario that guarantees civil war, is something I'm not prepared to do.

      I also know that some jobs in retail and sales are safe (for now) from automation or outsourcing, but it's telling that only some of the lowest paying jobs are so immune, and so higher skill sets generally acquired, are not necessarily going to fix this. There's not much of a tax base in these low end jobs either, which tempts governments to 'keep printing and borrowing' when there is no real 'national income' to tax.

      Delete
  6. Capitalist and Libertarian dream come true.

    Workers for free, Money for Nothin'

    Apologies to Dire Straits.

    Unpaid jobs: The new normal?

    http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2011/03/25/unpaid-jobs-the-new-normal/

    Google search 'people working for free' 1260 hits.

    Hot New Trend: Working Actual Professional Jobs For Free, As ‘Interns’

    http://wonkette.com/440768/hot-new-trend-working-actual-professional-jobs-for-free-as-interns

    Now, I guess the Government counted these people as 'employed' though they weren't really paid. Was that part of the Great Society, too?

    Now, a hypothetical question. If College Grads, due to the economy, feel compelled to work for 'free' to possibly, only possibly, get their 'feet in the door', then, free markets and all that, I guess a mere High School graduate should expect to PAY his employer to hire him. Seems logical, as he's worth less. Worthless.

    Then logically, since he (High School Grad) is paying for his own job, he could just as well pay himself, and save the money.

    All unemployed people could do this, then, and we'd have technically, full employment.

    Problem solved!

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  7. "Economics is logic"

    No, Logic is logic, Math is mostly logic. Economics is a 'soft science', (at best).

    Every economist, no matter what his stripe, claims he's 'logical'. It's baloney. (I'm being polite.) Massive wars have been fought over economic theory. ECONOMICS IS RELIGION. It has Dogma, true believers and cheerleaders. It's also sport.

    Economics is the triumph of prejudice over experience, the sacrifice of reality to theory.

    Economic life is an abstraction from the richness, complexity, and messy-ness of existence, yet it's promoters declare that it is the very core of existence..

    Under this, is basically the assumption that all of man's activities focus primarily on matters of finance, or exchange. Anything done for other purposes is not included or accounted for because (1) it can't be quantified. or (2) it's assumed that if it could be quantified. it would be trivial.

    These are huge assumptions.

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    Replies
    1. The name of the blog is economic policy journal and you come here commenting about your views on economics as if we give a shit. I assure you no one here gives a fuck about your economic views. Maybe instead of widely displaying your ignorance, you could read the first couple chapters of Man Economy and State, then maybe you would at least understand what the term economics even means in these parts.

      Delete
    2. @Anonymous

      So you're another cheerleader, so what?

      Cheerleaders are the most ignorant of all.

      Delete
    3. By the way, I notice most people here have names, except you. Are you trying to hide? 'Anonymous'

      Delete
  8. Though I worked for oil companies for 25 years, my degree was in Meteorology.

    This gave me a good background in Physic and Math. I know what a 'science' looks like.

    The austerity, that republicans and others want to impose, will amount to genocide. They don't understand that the first Great Depression of the 1930's was a time when the ties to the land were greater than now. People had a means to survive outside of the 'system'. Even then, some people did stave to death. Yes, it happened. At present, people who live 'off-grid' are harassed by the system, the PTB does what it can to prevent true independence. In this environment, an economic collapse, which is likely, and in fact, desired, by the power structure, will literally starve millions, and this is by intent, it is no accident. The libertarian message is partly correct, but the timing couldn't possibly be worse.

    If it 'were' a science, it's timing wouldn't be so awful.

    You have to keep people alive until new jobs can come about. Keep in mind that the whole thrust of the ingenuity of 21st century business, is in the elimination of workers.

    They will succeed in this, with all of the inventiveness that the mind of man can muster. That's a given and should not be underestimated.

    Somewhere not far down the road, this will become a greater issue then which economic religious observance, Keynesian, Austrian, Marxist, what ever you like, happens to be yours. It will just come down to whether the human race can survive against competition from his rapidly developing tools, which threaten to totally outclass him.

    Even Elon Musk, whom I greatly admire, has expressed this very same concern.
    People should listen.

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  9. I know most of this won't be published, but the Libertarians are playing right into the hands of the elites, people like Ted Turner, who regards the 'the people' as 'useless eaters'. The hearts of the elites are genocidal. so a banner of austerity, is just what the elites are looking for, and libertarians will help them deliver...

    Since we don't 'live off the land' anymore, the system crashes (or is pushed), then population crashes.

    Note this graph:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:World_population_growth_%28lin-log_scale%29.png

    This is what the elites intend to survive, while the rest of us don't...

    I should say, this is obvious...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mark, your reply w/r/t FDR & Pearl Harbor made me decide you were worth debate.

      If you think this blog, or most of the readers, are supporters of the oligarchs like Turner (who use their wealth to get access

      Delete
    2. Damned iPad. Capitalism sucks.

      Srsly. Look at how hard it is to get Apple to "play ball" with Google in our "crony capitalist" system. That's not a "free market" but an extension of the fascist state control we have given our rulers.

      Mark, people like Turner, Buffett, Soros, etc. use their access to get "special deals". Once you understand the basics of LOGICAL economics (yes, the bullshit taught in school today is "soft science" but the rigorous, principle based, foundational Austrian School, exemplified by Rothbard and Mises is true science) you will understand why removing FORCE, VIOLENCE based

      Delete
    3. System Then you will understand.

      You're obviously intelligent, just misguided. Learn before you speak.

      Delete
    4. http://www.phantis.com/news/greek-unemployment-hits-254-percent-august-new-record

      Reuters:
      "Greece's jobless rate rose for a 39th consecutive month to a new record of 25.4 percent in August, more than double the euro zone average, Greece's statistics service ELSTAT said on Thursday.

      A crippling, austerity-fuelled recession continued to take its toll on the labour market, putting Greek unemployment at more than double the euro zone average of 11.5 percent.

      The jobless rate has more than tripled since the country's five-year economic slump began in 2008. It now stands at 58 percent for those aged between 15 and 24 years, compared with 20 percent in August 2008."

      My belief is that a similar collapse in the U.S. will be far worse than what Greece is experiencing, as we are an Empire. Greece doesn't have a large standing military of soldiers and mercenaries deployed across the world to bring home, or massive defence contractors to downsize, or the negative multiplier effects of having to do these things.

      Yet talks of austerity, which will trigger the collapse, are commonplace.

      I understand the bizarre existential joy of the elites who want to ravage the 'useless eaters', but for 'the people' to sign on to this, based on 'economic ideology', alone is suicidal, a death wish...

      They should at least be told the truth of what this will bring.

      What they're being told is it will bring back prosperity.

      That may be true, but only in the same way that the Black Death brought forth the middle classes of Europe, through depopulation...

      To not speak the truth of this is unconscionable.

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    5. This was the official view of population reduction in 1975:

      National Security Study Memorandum 200

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Security_Study_Memorandum_200

      In the following, LDC means 'least developed country', by the way.

      "We must take care that our activities should not give the appearance to the LDCs of an industrialized country policy directed against the LDCs. Caution must be taken that in any approaches in this field we support in the LDCs are ones we can support within this country. "Third World" leaders should be in the forefront and obtain the credit for successful programs. In this context it is important to demonstrate to LDC leaders that such family planning programs have worked and can work within a reasonable period of time." [Chapter I, World Demographic Trends]"

      Note the important, often overlooked sentence:

      "Caution must be taken that in any approaches in this field we support in the LDCs are ones we can support within this country."

      So whatever they will do to the 'third world', they'll do to 'us' as well. To make it look 'normal'.

      This article is a 'must read' if you want to know where we're being guided too. It's not to a 'soft landing' no matter how carefully it's worded.

      The human race in general, and Americans as well, are just so many 'ants'. Austerity serves these goals. We have to be conscious of what this is all about.

      Delete
  10. @Dale

    I don't think any of you consciously supports people like Turner. My position is clear, your ideology is a subset, intended or not, of elite eugenics. It's all about timing. The right prescription, at the wrong time or applied incorrectly, is toxic. Please be sure to copy and past this chart into your browser:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:World_population_growth_%28lin-log_scale%29.png

    This is probably not something you've seen before. The elites have talked openly of population reductions below one billion. There are disputes among the elites as to how much control they will have. The pessimists among them are building underground shelters, large ones.

    Underground Shelter business is booming 2011, CNN reports.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJFJRuHQWpU

    The unwillingness of the libertarian leadership to discuss eugenics, automation issues, progress in artificial intelligence, and a few other topics, when these are clearly topics that elites commonly discuss, is 'puzzling'.

    It seems as though we want to pretend we're still in the 19th century....

    Most of the discussions brandied about on these forums generally avoid these topics.

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    1. I think I take back my earlier assessment.

      Do you really believe that "The Elite" are using Austiran Economic theories (which, BTW, are toxic to their plans) to forcibly depopulate the planet?

      The Elite want control, but there is no way they are using Austiran Economic Theory (since it is absolutely opposite their desires) to promote that control.

      Until you read Mises, Rothbard or Hazzlitt I'm done debating your crazy ass.

      Delete
    2. Yeah Dale, even after skimming the dumb Unpaid Jobs article I was still trying to figure out why any sane person would work for free or what kind of crazy business would plan to prosper using unpaid interns when I got lost in the whirlwind of fallacies and strawmen which followed. As for the bizarre assertion that Austrians are actually playing into the hands of the elites by opposing them, I don't think "austerity" means what Mark thinks it means.

      Delete
    3. Austerity is austerity. It kills, period. Elites kill, not just control, but kill.

      It's the same no matter who does it.

      There is no such thing as 'gentle austerity'.

      Things are what they are. You are part of the controlled opposition.

      And Dale. I know you didn't look at the population chart I posted.
      You're lazy.

      As far as debating, you haven't done any debating, or listening, just sit on your little pedestal and drop names. I don't care what you do, your probably 1/3 my age.

      I've forgotten more than you'll ever know.


      .

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    4. @Jay

      I appreciate your lack of hostility. I didn't come here to be hostile.

      My point is, the direction of society now is to hammer the little people and let the big people do whatever they want. We all see this. One rule of law for the average Joe. And a different rule of law for the elites. It's more pronounced now, then it has been for a long time.

      Austerity is more of the same. I don't see the elites going through austerity at all,just little people. So why isn't anyone questioning it?

      I'm not real interested in people throwing names at me, I can read. The questions still need to be asked.

      I think any theory or idea that conforms with something favorable to the ruling classes only, should be questioned.

      I see a lot of people here all in lockstep, praising each other for adherence to certain ideas. But it is possible that something is being missed.

      Why bringing this up should cause so much anger and personal hostility is beyond me. It feels like a religion. Walk into a prayer meeting at a church somewhere and question God, you get the same reactions.

      Delete
    5. @Mark

      Perhaps, in all of your many years you never learned proper grammar or argumentation appropriate for educated discourse, thus impeding you from subsequently forgetting it. Nevertheless, your inability to present a cogent argument is distracting when not outright maddening. Make an argument, support it and be prepared to defend it from obvious attacks. You have done none of the above thus far.

      It is possible that not everything you say is without foundation; rather, it seems you have trouble combining words into sentences that make intelligible concepts clear to others who attempt to read them. This is further complicated by the intermingling of unrelated meanderings and unfounded assertions about subjects as diverse as the colors are varied.

      How do you define religion? What is science? What is 'austerity' to you? Where do you presume Austrian Economic analysis supports this concept? What exactly is Austrian Economic analysis doing to support Elite 'control'? Please be as specific as possible, as this will help all of us moving forward.

      Finally, I can't help but wonder at something you mentioned above. What, daresay, is mathematics OTHER than logic? Again, this may be as simple as an error of semantics or the common misuse of the adverb 'mostly'. On the other hand, it appears you are minimally familiar with the mathematical (logical) concept of exponential growth. This, however, brings me back to my original argument: you do not understand how to express yourself or your opinions. A chart is not an argument.

      Based solely on your comments it seems more likely you're a troll than a seriously misguided individual. I suppose only time will tell.

      Delete
    6. Last question first. Mathematics at the higher level, is an act of creation. Logic confirms the truth of that creation. The deeper parts of mathematics are not immediately intuitive to most people, often only to the discoverers of these truths, initially. One must be careful to recognize that the process that gave us say, integral calculus, is partly intuitive. It's the framework of logic that allowed these insights to be verified and transmitted to others.

      My concepts must be intelligible to some, as I've tutored people in math, science and history. They do well, have always excelled. The problem is yours.

      My statement that this has religious overtones, is borne out by all the 'attacking' going on here. truly intellectual environments are not so quick to insult. It's hard to defend against attacks which are composed of, 'you haven't read what I've read'. I think the question I have posed, should just simply be answered by one of you.
      I stated it above in my response to Jay, one of the few here who doesn't seem to have an axe to grind.


      It's also clear that NONE of you are paying any attention to what's happening across southern Europe,except to say, it's the peoples fault. Well, partly. The bankers are involved too, and milking it for all they've got. The number of suicides are scaling up across these areas, any many are losing health care with serious medical conditions. I've noticed a cavalier attitude here about human suffering as long as it doesn't happened to some of you,it's just not a problem.

      Well, it will be. The same bankers who are engineering the collapse of Europe, are prepping North America for the same treatment. This seems to be an area where everyone here goes 'amen'.

      Other than that, you all hate bankers. Except when it comes to tearing the heart out of countries then their O.K.,looks like.

      Now, to be more specific on one of your other questions, science has a logical part, and an empirical part. Physics is one step down the tree from formal logic and math. There is a continumum on through the start of the social sciences, and these are called 'soft sciences'. I didn't coin the term. If you do a google search on 'soft science' 96,800 hits. Economics is a soft science. From Wikipedia:

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_and_soft_science

      "Within the areas of natural science and social science, some disciplines are viewed as "harder" than others. For example, physics is viewed as harder than, say, psychology since the former but not the latter can make numerically precise predictions about experimental data. A contrary example would be economics, which is theoretically well developed, and often relies heavily on mathematical models, yet often cannot make basic predictions. The ability to perform controlled experiments is usually an indication of hard science."

      You should do the google search yourself, and realise that economics is not what it's billed to be.

      As such, it easily slides into just emotional noise, as it's foundations are not rigorous.

      I would appreciate that you provide links as I do, to support your points. You don't even seem to do that even with each other. There's a problem there.

      Now, the Austrian school does recognize bubbles, and so also recognizes the business cycle. I don't see any conversations here that reference current economic conditions except in the judgemental way, of 'blaming' some group or another. There's alot of tar and feathering here, but I don't think many of you read past your 'bibles' I don't think you have any interest whatsoever in history, and this is not how you become abroad and educated citizen.

      Delete
    7. @scootsmcgoo

      By the way. I invented and introduced a form of exponential analysis for the stock market a few years ago. An example is here:

      http://yorbatv.ning.com/profiles/blogs/schematic-of-spx-from-april-top-to-the-present

      You would not have the capacity to do this.

      Delete
    8. Mark,

      The aggravating thing is that you're spot on with many of your observations, but your conclusions are inexplicable. For instance, you state, "...One rule of law for the average Joe. And a different rule of law for the elites. It's more pronounced now....". I couldn't have said it better myself.

      But you repeat many of the tired old shibboleths such as a belief in the economic advantages to be had by keeping unneeded military personnel on the public dole. Bastiat demolished this myth almost 200 years ago. There's nothing new under the sun. I believe that any government employee should expect to be out of a job any day, as opposed to guaranteed a lifetime of secure employment. Muster those people out, slash the military-industrial complex to the bone, and return the money to the private sector. What would the private sector do with the money? Nobody knows, and that's what drives the central-planning statists crazy; but it's safe to say that you'd get an economic stimulus beyond what could be provided by a thousand Bernankes.

      The crux of your argument seems to be that austerity causes pain, so we should......what? It would be impossible to impose austerity on truly free markets, like trying to catch a cloud. The fact that we live in a regulatory democracy and the elites in the politico-financial sector have inserted themselves into almost every corner of the economy makes it all the more urgent to act. The present system is destroying the middle class.

      Greece is a particularly sad case. Greece hasn't had a strong economy in, what, 2000 years? The international banksters knew the Greeks had no hope of ever producing goods which they could exchange for Euros to use to pay their debts. The whole thing reminds me of a Mob operation in which they enter into a "partnership" with a beleaguered business owner. They exhaust the owner's credit, bust the place out, then burn it for the insurance money. Sad. And these people are powerful enough to do it to an entire country.


      Delete
    9. @Jay

      Really, I'm not endorsing keeping people in the military, I loathe the empire.

      I'm just pointing out, over and over, that libertarian theory, in fact ALL of the theories, are inadequate at this point. I'm not against people going through pain either, sometimes that's necessary, i understand that.

      I was trying to get people here to understand a few things that are 'out of the box', with no success. They were these:

      (1) All theories are inadequate to handle what's coming,
      which is, to wit, a gradual ejection of most human labour through automation. This will run to a very high percentage of human beings displaced, as 'economic units'. Nobody's theory yet takes this into account, or even attempts to. Everyone is in total denial about this.
      (2) The current warfare/welfare state is much grander in scale than any other of it's kind in history, as it must be, as it attempts desperately to mask this displacement effect, and how far the true displacement of human labour has already occurred, under the sheets.
      (3) The elites are aware of this, and are/ have been intensely suppressing population growth by all means possible, while being as quiet about it as possible. Birth rates in the U.S. just set a historical low, below that of 1920, when statistics on this started to be kept.
      (4) Because of the unawareness of any of this by the general population, or by the academics who should be tracking and reporting this underlying reality, when austerity does come, it will not in the end produce the expected or desired outcome. You will not get a reality that matches what anyone's theory, including but not limited to, libertarian ideas, says should arrive.

      All of this is very serious, practically without parallel in human history. But the denial is thick, as for people to contemplate this, is like looking into the abyss. I am highly suspicious of academia right now, as these topics are strenuously avoided on most economics sites. I think this is not totally an accident.

      I provided for Dale, since he was addressing me the most, a link to a wikipedia chart that most people are not aware of. It is a chart of human population growth. Now, most people have seen these things, but on most charts, they start at the beginning of the industrial revolution. This one is different, it starts at the birth of agriculture, and on this one, the true nature of the exponential blowoff is much more visible, as well as our true position on the graph. We are in the same place in human population growth as the Nasdaq was in late 1999. This is evident once you look at the chart provided.

      I KNOW the elites are aware of this much more accurate picture, and are frantically getting ready for the inevitable collapse. They do not want the populations of the world, generally, to be made aware of the truly extreme and prolonged problems that will occur when this 'mother of all bubbles', pops. And that bubble isn't as some people think, stocks, bonds, or even sovereign debt.. It is the beginning of possibly the most violent and savage period in human history, by the additive effects of underlying severe structural unemployment through automation, combined with the properties of a structural, exponential blow-off in the population profile that I have presented here.

      Now, what can be done about this, I'm not sure. All I know is without awareness, there isn't a chance in Hell that civilization comes out of this intact.

      I want the academicians to climb down out of their ivory tower's and address this.




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    10. I would mention that austerity is a 'soft kill' method, not as blatant as war. That's why it is being employed so heavily. The fewer people, particularly young people, you have going into this, the less the PTB has to worry about,so you want low birth rates. It's also helpful to set generation against generation, as a distraction. I have been told a couple times on this blog that my Social Security check is at the young's expense. This is not realistic considering the 29 trillion dollar bailout the banks got. But if you are in the upper 1%, these fictions distract, while the clock ticks down...

      I have more to say, but this is a lot for one post, so I'll stop here...

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    11. "....a gradual ejection of most human labour through automation."

      This isn't being discussed around here because it's not an issue. Perhaps you didn't see this. Or this. The fact that college graduates today can't afford to pay their outrageous student loans doesn't mean there are no jobs. I could talk a bit about the ways in which automation makes existing products cheaper and better, and makes new products possible, but I'm sure you have been exposed to those ideas and rejected them. You're a modern-day Luddite.

      You obviously believe that the collapse of our jerry-rigged financial system and the likely balkanization of the United States will trigger a zombie apocalypse. I believe it will be tremendously liberating thing and will usher in a new era of prosperity, albeit after some pain. We'll see who's right. While the elites are undeniably powerful, I don't believe there's anything particularly sinister about their influence. They are enabled by central banking, and that will end with the collapse of central banking.

      Austerity and default are not the same thing, and I really don't think you understand the difference. If there is a single financially troubled government on the face of the earth which is implementing a reasoned, responsible program of getting spending in line with revenue (think: austerity), I haven't read about it. Lots of them ARE frenetically going bankrupt, however, without a clue what to do about it. Greece's government isn't being prudent, they're bankrupt and the people who were promised free ponies are marching and throwing Molotov cocktails. The idea that fiscal responsibility is cataclysmic and lethal is just ridiculous.



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    12. @Mark

      You have some very conflicting views. You did not answer any of my questions directly. Again, Whats your definition of religion? And science? And austerity? Please elaborate on Austrian Economic analysis' key points and how they are directly giving rise to economic destruction of southern Europeans.

      Until you answer these questions, I cannot respond to the rest of your indecipherable ramblings.

      As regards mathematics, if a truth exists, then man cannot create it. It simply is. Man did not create gravity just as he did not create addition. They are, universal truths. Man became aware of these truths by an uncompromisingly consistent application of logic. Your insight about logic is much more on point.

      Your perception of math as creation smacks more of religion than anything any Austrian has ever said in any context, let alone relating to economics. If not, please quote me line and verse.

      Then, after ranting about posters on this site reacting negatively and 'attacking' you, you proceed with an ad hominem attack. Do as I say not as I do? You don't know me.

      You speak frequently about 'Southern Europe', a place I doubt you have been, though I could be wrong. Having lived in southern Spain (Murcia), France (Paris) and Italy (Rome) for 4 of the past 5 years (I am now in SP, Brazil), I know exactly what is going on. With how many Europeans do you speak on a daily basis? And with individuals from any place other than 'merika? How many languages do you speak? I can guess, but I will let you respond if you so choose.

      The point being, your 'sources' are google, wikipedia and the MSM that has been, minimally, translated to English. Even if you were motivated enough to find a true local source, you would be incapable of reading it. Though it seems improbable as all your 'links' are simple google searches or wiki articles.

      You ask me to post 'links', presumably to wikipedia. Really? Assuming you are collecting SS it is understandable that this whole internet thing is new to you. However, those of us who grew up with it understand the importance of searching for credible sources. In my 1st post I made no direct arguments other than: You lack a basic understanding of grammar and argumentation. So, just scroll up. The rest of my post were questions, that you ignored.

      Please read carefully. I made no mention of soft science. This was you and you alone. I simply asked you to define, in clear, concise language the concept of science. From the mumbled mess you left, all one could logical say is that your definition of science: 'part logic and part empiricism'. So science is a complete contradiction. How can you measure logic? I just want you to see that you are attacking people's positions here using YOUR definitions and concepts, not theirs. That is why I am asking you to elaborate.

      Your final paragraph is the most telling. If you had spent more than 5 minutes reading Mr. Wenzel's posts and the responses of his readers you would understand how ludicrous your assertions are. Nobody here wants to be a 'citizen'. Why? If you can't answer you are, again, unaware of the context in which this discussion is taking place. Please take about 3 months to read the articles, the posters responses, and some of the other literature that others have mentioned. Then make comments.

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    13. I just read your response to Jay.

      What exactly is 'libertarian theory'? Are you speaking about Rothbardian libertarianism, or beltway libertarianism? Or some other concept you have conceived yourself?

      While I tend to agree with Jay that some of your observations are spot on, you make blanket generalizations and draw conclusions from thin air with no rhyme or reason. Certainly no logic.

      For example: you say receiving a SS check is not at the young's expense. You point to the Bank Bailouts. Thus, you are saying its okay for you to steal from the young via government, since the absolute amount you steal is significantly less than the portion the government stole and gave to the banks. This is illogical. It sounds like a 3yr old explaining to his mother why he stole the ball from Joey "Sammy has stolen balls from Joey a thousand times, so I can to." Nobody should be subject to this violent thievery. Some in the anarcho/libertarian camp such as Walter Block have made the case for accepting SS checks, but certainly not using your 'logic'.

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  11. The Terrorists on the Potomac have made modern life unbearable - for those who are not mentally retarded - with their taxes and laws. Going to school and working for a living are a colossal waste of life now. You are nothing but tax livestock and the terrorists are going to milk you for all your worth shortly.

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  12. A Genius Investor Thinks Billions Of People Are Going To Starve To Death — Here's Why

    http://www.businessinsider.com/peak-phosphorus-and-food-production-2012-12


    A Genius Investor Thinks Billions Of People Are Going To Starve To Death
    Investor Jeremy Grantham of GMO recently published a startlingly depressing outlook for the future of humanity.

    Grantham thinks the number of people on Earth has finally and permanently outstripped the planet's ability to support us.

    Grantham believes that the planet can only sustainably support about 1.5 billion humans, versus the 7 billion on Earth right now (heading to 10-12 billion).

    Basically, Grantham thinks most of us are going to starve to death.

    Why?

    In part because we're churning through a finite supply of something that is critical to our ability to produce food: Phosphorus.

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  13. Liberalism gave rise to LBJ’s Great Society which has produced a decadent US society.

    Great Society Programs launched in the 1960s failed to raise the education attainment and functional skills of youth, and created massive numbers of inner city housing projects where multi-generational families reside, as LBJ’s grandchildren are now having children out of wedlock.

    There exists barriers to successful careers for youth today. These are a transition to a post industrial society where employers are willing to hire only adults with either experience or with education; and most jobs are in new industries where there is a cultural threshold and mind set barrier that minority males cannot meet; for example have you ever met a minority male dental hygienist or a minority male LPN; and the new jobs are not located in the the inner city or in the Rust Belt. Minority males simply are not moving out into the suburbs where the jobs are located and are not using transportation to go where the jobs are. Minority males have gone off to war in Iraq and Afghanistan; and when they come back, no private employer will hire these killers, as they have been emotionally crippled by war.

    LBJ’s Great Society cleared the way for The Milton Friedman Free to Choose Floating Currency Regime to commence in 1971 and Interventionism by the US Federal Reserve and the passage of libeal financial reforms such as the Glass Steagall Act.

    The lasting results of the push for LBJ’s Great Society are Universities and Colleges, Planned Parenthood, Mass Transit, Head Start, TANF, Obamacare, Food Stamps, The Minimum Wage, Public Housing Projects and Section 8 Housing Vouchers.

    Economist Thomas Sowell, related in War on Poverty Revisited, August 17, 2004, that the Great Society programs only contributed to the destruction of African American families, saying "the black family, which had survived centuries of slavery and discrimination, began rapidly disintegrating in the liberal welfare state that subsidized unwed pregnancy and changed welfare from an emergency rescue to a way of life."

    Further barriers to employment are cultural. Education is failing, as values clarification is the educational direction in schools, which communicates that all values, that is activities (hobbies), morals (virtues), and ethics (relationship rules with others,) are subjective, and that there is no objective truth, and thus there is no objective reality; furthermore, America is an alcohol obsessed society, and a drug obsessed society; and schools produce antisocial males, who see confrontation as good ethic, which cripples minority males from going into any workplace.

    Today we are the fullness of Liberalism, which commenced when Obama got a $814 billion stimulus spending program passed through Congress in 2009, which when coupled with QE1, gave Inflationism an entirely new thrust, and now the US economy to a large degree has recovered from the 2008 decline with automobile sales being a metric of recovery. The Detroit Advertizer relates Superstorm Sandy gave an extra boost to U.S. auto sales, making November the best month for car makers in nearly five years. Falling US unemployment is another metric of recovery. The Seattle Times relates Unemployment rates declined last month in more than half of the 372 largest U.S. cities.

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  14. @scootsmcgoo

    All science including math is a creation. Many approaches are attempted, only some are sound. The false starts are always understood as subjective and wrong, but the successful attempts are seen differently. but the process that produces them are the same.

    I didn't ask you to produce links to wikipedia, just links, you document nothing.

    The internet thing is not new to me, I retired from IT. I had my first computer in the 1970's when you didn't exist.

    I also provide a link to technical analysis that I post on the yorba tech site. You didn't look at it because you're lazy, or stupid.

    Economics is not a science really, in my view. It can't make meaningful predictions.

    'Nobody here wants to be a citizen'

    Fine, then leave.

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  15. @jay

    I saw your list of occupations It comes from a commercial site, as a front for places like the University of Phoenix, which is at the head of a list of dodgy universities that sells degrees of dubious value, the kind that are criticized as part of the bubble in useless degrees.

    Maybe you haven't seen this:

    Teacher layoffs sweep U.S. Associated Press

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNXLjVwMZNo

    Teacher layoffs

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRFdt88GjzI CBSnews.

    Maybe you and Mr. Wenzel might use better sources in the future...

    Teaching is a funny one, as budgets are slashed across the country, there will be fewer teachers.

    Accounting and Finance.

    Yes, those are great occupations, like banking, we want to encourage that, don't we? Now accounting is going up probably because of Obama's Healthcare and taxation. But doesn't that sound like a dead end job? I thought you guys wanted to roll those jobs back?

    Manfacturing

    The dodgy site you provided kept mentioning warehouses and manufacturing in the same sentence.

    Here is what your site says:

    "Manufacturing isn’t exactly a glamorous job. It’s often in warehouses, and some of it includes doing the dirty work of the world that most people would rather ignore. But students who graduate with manufacturing skills are in incredibly high demand. Factory owners simply can’t find enough skilled workers to fill their warehouses."

    last I checked, warehouses are where you store manufactured goods, not where you make them, but if you use a poor source as a reference, you will be embarrassed by things like this.

    Now, I leave you to go back and do your homework...better..I'm not going to spend time debugging your logic, I have better things to do.

    Now lets go to your other source, which is the curator of this blog.

    O.K., I can agree with a lot of that, but I think the 'too high minimum wage' is a 'whine' mostly, as is 'unemployment insurance'. That's something you do to be part of a 'civil' society. Of course not too many people here are 'civil' so I don't expect that to play. O.k.

    But the rest I can mostly agree with. Be that as it may, none of those major conditions are going to change, because we are in the 'down' part of the business cycle.

    I would point out though , that the majority of these conditions were in effect for the last 30 years. Regulations have increased, that I agree, and that's mostly a bad thing, but high joblessness is more recent, and that doesn't correlate well with conditions that have been around for over a generation.

    Again, outsourcing and automation are biggies. Designed to remove us.

    I think you guys are going to end up as Dinosaurs. You do have some points, and I state that openly. But I see now why you all don't post a lot of links, because you can't find legitimate sources to back up what you say.



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  16. It's hard to take you people seriously, I believe in fact, I don't.

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    Replies
    1. "Teaching is a funny one, as budgets are slashed across the country, there will be fewer teachers.

      Because only the state can educate someone? Now who is the dinosaur?

      "... But doesn't that sound like a dead end job?...."

      Aaaaand, Mark moves the goalposts.

      "Here is what your site says:"

      MY site? So if we post a link we're responsible for all the content therein, including the fact that the urban dwelling journalist doesn't know a warehouse from a factory? Nitpick much? To indulge your fetish for links, here is an article I came across recently. WARNING: it may contain a couple of misspelled words. What I find interesting is that these jobs are going unfilled because the companies can't find qualified applicants. Hmmm, maybe we DO need less government teachers.

      "It's hard to take you people seriously, I believe in fact, I don't."

      HA! So I guess you won't be posting any more?

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    2. We could only hope.

      Try to pin him down on any one subject and he writhes and wriggles like a true pol.

      Still no actual connection made to ABCT and his yet undefined idea of 'austerity'.

      And btw, I did leave, been gone for a while. That doesn't mean your lack of knowledge of this blog and its frequenters is any less inadequate.

      Not that I think you will but still waiting for definitions of austerity, science, religion...

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