- Bob L said on Thursday July 2nd, 2009 10:24:58 AM
I suppose it depends on how they calculate unemployed. My girlfriend is considered unemployed, and receiving Obaba-Bucks (an extension to unemployment). She is also working 20 hours a week. If it were not for Obama-Bucks, she would probably be working 60 hours a week somewhere to make up for it.
There are almost always jobs available out there. They can be hard to find, and they may not pay enough to make it worth it (read, your standard of living will change), but there are almost always jobs available.
There are many people, however, that are unemployable. They do nothing to make anyone want to hire them, and nothing to try to keep their job if they do somehow find one.
Note, I am not saying things are easy. These are hard times. Congress keeps playing games and changing the rules, so it is difficult for employers to make decisions. Taking money from those willing to produce, and giving it to those that are not. The media demonizes business as if it were there fault, yet they are the ones that create jobs (NOT Congress). The media has people so scared that even those with $$$ are not spending them, which makes fewer sales, which means fewer jobs. And the circle goes round and round.
- job seeker said on Thursday July 2nd, 2009 01:38:45 PM
9-10 doesnt come close to reality. That only reflects out of work and actively job hunting. Factor in out of work and too discouraged to job hunt and under employed people who work a few hours a week and the reality is closer to 20. Beer drinking no change I believe.
- Chuck W0W said on Thursday July 2nd, 2009 02:59:37 PM
Thailand unemployment to JUMP to 2.0-2.5
http://in.reuters.com/article/specialEvents4/idINBKK4598920081208
Yes you read that right. This backwards nation (IN American Eyes) has extremely low unemployment.
WHY ? Because they dont have Unemployment CHECKS and Food Stamps and Section 8 housing and Food Banks and many more handouts.
You find a job or make one and do what you can to survive. I never saw anyone admitted to a hospital here for starvation but see many thousands of Americans admitted for being over 300+ lbs AND UNEMPLOYED !! How the hell does that happen ?
Stop ya wining Yanks. Make no mistake it sucks to be unemployed at what you like to do. Try something you dont like and youll never be unemployed again.
- Darren said on Thursday July 2nd, 2009 06:45:30 PM
http://www.itravelabout.com
Unemployment figures (in the West) are adjusted to make better reading.
If 20 are unemployed (a likely figure) 10 are moved into get-back-to-work programs, or government funded work schemes, therefore none of those are unemployed.
That leaves the other 10, who are unemployed, which become the official government figure.
I am living in Thailand right now.
Everyone has work, as there is no benefits system for them.
Many people work on the supermarket being built nearby, many on other projects such as roads. Its hard work.
Some sell goods on the beach to tourists. Others make and sell food.
Finding/making work is fairly easy. I make websites as I travel. I work everyday, because I like it.
In the west, lazy people are happy not to work. I am from the UK, our unemployment benefits are excellent for lazy people. I choose not to live there very much. I like to work, but not to fund other people.
- Eric said on Friday July 3rd, 2009 03:35:47 PM
Andy,
Real unemployment is 20.6 in the USA (June 2009) according to...
http://www.shadowstats.com/
I think I heard recently that the official estimates were at 9.5.
Eric
- Claudius said on Saturday July 4th, 2009 07:41:43 PM
Statistical numbers mean nothing. You make of them what you want.
You can always find some kind of a job. You may not like it, and you may think it is beneath you, but they can be found.
200+ lbs and unemployed does seem rather ironic, but this is mostly due to, strangely enough, economic factors. It is a proven fact that the poorer you are the less choice in nutrition. Since fast food is cheap and extremely high in calories this does not bode well for the poor. Ive never known a poor person who had much choice in what they ate.
I have never seen a dead person because of starvation, but I see every day people who are extremely poor and malnourished. Some like walking skeletons. Come to Africa, choose nearly any town and you will see the same.
- Jack and Jane Verburg said on Sunday July 5th, 2009 05:37:24 AM
So you have never seen a person close to starving!
The reason is because you alway travel through a country and never in a country. Buses dont travel to starvation camps and they dont have hotels in those areas either.
We were in Ethiopia for months before we really began to understood the people and their plight...before we were invited into a hut and saw the way the local people live.
We are blessed to live in Canada.
Send me your e-mail address and Ill send you some photos.
Response to Claudius...200+ lb. people have choices...cooking at home is always cheaper...how many fat poeple do you see in Africa?
- Andy HoboTraveler.com said on Sunday July 5th, 2009 05:54:42 AM
Hmm West Africa is full of fat Africans.I have been to 16 countries in Africa, which included Niger and Mali some champs of HDI.
50 percent of women in West Africa are overweight. I call them the cows in the Peugot Station Wagons.
Trop, pas ce bon, cest gros
Hmm the French is slipping.
I personally think you did not understand, probably gave money. Hehehe
Andy going to the Philippines where money and food problems are worst than Africa.
- Andy HoboTraveler.com said on Sunday July 5th, 2009 06:03:23 AM
There are photos on my site of babies dying of malnutrition in Niger. This is not starvation,caused by mono cropping and 1000s of years of culture, religion and abuse.
The was not starving, the refused tc grow a diverse crop of food.
All of Africa is under the resource curse. The do no stickpile anything. One bad crop and some starve. Truly explains Darwins theories or proves.
- Little Blossom said on Monday July 6th, 2009 06:37:02 AM
http://www.odesk.com/users/~~2106cc287469747c
Percentages are only as good as the reported numbers, and I highly doubt that the numbers being reported are concise with the reality.
Beer consumption has not been reduced, if anything, its moving forward at an increase.
That along with the suicide rates in the U.S. But then again, are these numbers correct? Or are these stories told on the news for reasons beyond me?
Andy, when times are hard, the one thing you can count on is an increase in alcohol consumption. Do not fear!!
Starvation comes to us in many forms, however the form in which you speak of, from lack of nutritional consumption, can be found right here in the U.S.
Kentucky, Virginia, N and S Carolina, just to name a few, have starving children.
Then there are those cases of horrible abuse:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/11/nyregion/11starve.html
I can only imagine the lack of static’s on such cases, because Ive been into the heart of Kentucky, and there are children there that dont have indoor plumbing, shoes or a closet full of clothes. They drink contaminated water from wells and some of them Ive encountered (dont know the stats!), dont even have a birth certificate! Their bellies look just like those of the children who live in Uganda, which is caused by malnutrition and stomach parasites.
Okay, Ill move on..........
- Bob L said on Monday July 6th, 2009 02:42:39 PM
Little Blossom said : Starvation comes to us in many forms, however the form in which you speak of, from lack of nutritional consumption, can be found right here in the U.S. Kentucky, Virginia, N and S Carolina, just to name a few, have starving children. Then there are those cases of horrible abuse: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/11/nyregion/11starve.html
I can only imagine the lack of static’s on such cases, because Ive been into the heart of Kentucky, and there are children there that dont have indoor plumbing, shoes or a closet full of clothes. They drink contaminated water from wells and some of them Ive encountered (dont know the stats!), dont even have a birth certificate!
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Not to be argumentative, I really do care as you do, but some points need to be made here. In the US, there are so many forms of help for children that there is no reason for starvation. It happens, as you have witnessed, but it does not have to happen. It is not for lack of availability of food.
Indoor plumbing is a luxury. Clean drinking water is not. This is something that even the poorest people should be able to get, but dont always. There are enough charities that donate shoes etc that again, this should not (but does) happen. A closet full of cloths is an extreme luxury. Protection from the elements is not. Again, there are enough charities donating cloths that all children should have some cloths (but often dont). A birth certificate is yet another Govt requirement that should be a voluntary thing. Then again, having a social security number is supposed to be voluntary.
Although I have been to the areas you speak of, I have not been involved with the types of folk that you have. I would like to hear their stories, as in, why are they in such a predicament? I would suspect the reasons are many, with alcahol abuse being a big part of it. And, as in your argument, abuse is probably one of the, if not the, biggest factor, for whatever reason it happens. Fear of the Govt probably is a big factor. (don*t want to ask for govt assistance for fear their children would be taken away). Maybe too much pride to take charity, but not enough to actualy do the work necessary to better themselves. Ignorance is probably pretty big too. And probably some mental health issues. Too many generations of living poor to know the differenct might be a factor also.
What it comes down to, in my opinion anyway, is that no child has to starve in this country. Nor does any adult for that matter, but the help for that is not as plentiful.
It sounds like you are doing a lot to help. Do you have a web site or organization that you work with?
Bob L
