Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Why the President's Jobs Plan Won't Work
The President has proposed a new plan to get people back to work.
The problem is one tax on businesses is skyrocking, not due to the federal govt. perse (though they are the ones extending benefits), but due to states.
State unemployment taxes have skyrocketed. Here in Florida a 12 fold increase.
"The minimum tax will jump from $8.40 per employee to $100.30 — an almost 12-fold increase — next year while the maximum will go up from $378 per employee to $459, state officials said Wednesday."
33 other states plan to hike these taxes a minimum of 3x the present rate. HI has a 500% increase coming.
This means we have gone past the tipping point. The action by the govt. will be too little too late.
Friday, December 4, 2009
Why the unemployment numbers went down...
The number of people in the workforce shrank by 291,000.
How this impacts the numbers is explained by the genius at Political Math:
Let’s say we have 20 people in the workforce and 2 of them fit the technical definition for unemployed, which means that they’re actively looking for work. That gives us an unemployment rate of 10%.
Now, let’s say one of the unemployed people got tired of being unemployed and decided to go back to school. She has now removed herself from the labor force, so we don’t count her when we count unemployed people. Let’s also say that one of the employed people lost his job and instead of looking for a new one, he decided to simply retire.
As you can see we haven’t added any jobs… in fact we have fewer jobs than we did before. But we took a higher percentage of people out of the “unemployed” group than we did out of the “employed” group. It’s now 1 person unemployed and 17 people employed. We’ve “slashed” the unemployment rate to 5.5%.
How this impacts the numbers is explained by the genius at Political Math:
Let’s say we have 20 people in the workforce and 2 of them fit the technical definition for unemployed, which means that they’re actively looking for work. That gives us an unemployment rate of 10%.
Now, let’s say one of the unemployed people got tired of being unemployed and decided to go back to school. She has now removed herself from the labor force, so we don’t count her when we count unemployed people. Let’s also say that one of the employed people lost his job and instead of looking for a new one, he decided to simply retire.
As you can see we haven’t added any jobs… in fact we have fewer jobs than we did before. But we took a higher percentage of people out of the “unemployed” group than we did out of the “employed” group. It’s now 1 person unemployed and 17 people employed. We’ve “slashed” the unemployment rate to 5.5%.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Monthly Rotation and checklist.
Don't forget it is rotation and check list week.
Tips this month:
Every six months it's a good idea to inspect and taste your water supply or even change it out. Even reaching into the barrel (or what ever you use and feel the sides for signs of algae/slime. Inspect any lids rubber gaskets etc..
Don't forget to inspect the gear and items in your personal carry bag. I discovered damage to my water purifier filter screen and the container carrying my silver had been crushed...both were in the bottom. I will have to rearrange their placement.
Tips this month:
Every six months it's a good idea to inspect and taste your water supply or even change it out. Even reaching into the barrel (or what ever you use and feel the sides for signs of algae/slime. Inspect any lids rubber gaskets etc..
Don't forget to inspect the gear and items in your personal carry bag. I discovered damage to my water purifier filter screen and the container carrying my silver had been crushed...both were in the bottom. I will have to rearrange their placement.
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