The REAL rate of unemployment

The recent rise in the “official” unemployment rate to 9.5% has created a lot of concern, especially since it unemployment has grown faster than the Obama administration predicted.  This in turn has led to calls for a second stimulus (unfortunately, most people don’t realize that there were a great many economists calling for the first stimulus to be even larger… why they don’t know this is thanks to our wonderful traditional media, who parrot every right-wing talking point as if it were the sermon on the mount).

However, as Charles Lemos points out at MyDD, the official unemployment statistics bandied about severely undercount the numbers of people out of work.  The actual numbers of people who are unable to work at all, or who are working part-time when they would rather be working full-time, is 16.5%, and there are several states where the numbers are 20% or higher.  Even worse, those numbers are still going to go up.

Thanks, Dubya!

Why unions are good

There seems to have been a recent trend (maybe not that recent) among people, especially those with money, to look down upon and actively vilify unions. Certainly, corporations seem to think so, and I'm sure they've put a lot of effort into misinformation campaigns that make unions seem bad, so that they can get rid of unions that unite their workers, and can then abuse said workers who no longer have the protecion of collective bargaining etc. for protection. Over at DailyKos, Nathan Newman writes a great diary talking about the great benefits of unions, not just for the workers, but for society as a whole. It's a great reminder of why unions are not just good, but essential.