http://townhall.com/tipsheet/cortneyobrien/2013/11/08/newest-conservative-hero-spongebob-n1743161
For anyone familiar with the yellow, patty-flipping, underwater sea sponge known as Spongebob SquarePants, I recommend taking a look at this article. While O'Brien took somewhat of a comical approach while writing the article, the message that she conveys is extremely relevant to some of the economic issues facing the United States in the present day.
In a recently aired episode of Spongebob, the sponge is fired from his job at the Krusty Krab where he works as a fry cook. Instead of portraying him as a "lazy sponge" who is satisfied with accepting "Bikini Bottom welfare", Spongebob producers portray him as a working sponge who understands the importance of making a career and salary for himself, no matter what the job at hand may be.
Perhaps if all people unemployed in the United States searched for jobs with such ruthless perseverance the amount of people collecting unemployment and welfare from the government would decrease. Is the entirety of the problem the fact that there truly AREN'T enough jobs out there? Or does a large portion of the problem lie in the fact that there are many (too many) people who don't want to accept certain jobs/too many people that don't try hard enough to find jobs?
Even Spongebob would rather flip burgers at the Krusty Krab than collect money from the government. Would unemployment rates decrease if a larger amount of Americans had the same attitude? Most likely. Right now, there's an unacceptable surplus of people who don't live everyday with such a mentality.
Thursday, November 21, 2013
US families affected by unemployment up by 33 percent: World Socialist Web Site
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/08/29/cens-a29.html
This article discusses how the number of families across the United States with at least one unemployed parent has been increasing for the last eight years. Statistics show that this number has increased by 33% on average. However, there were some states that had an increase of as much as 148%. What is causing some states to have such huge increases in unemployment?
Perhaps the reason behind such a trend lies within an uncommon idea, such as the ideas and trends of economic patterns discovered and described in Freakonomics. It would be hard to provide the answers to such complex problems with such minimal knowledge of economics. Other trends described in this article also include young adult children living with their parents for longer periods of time and the fact that many young adults are unable to find stable jobs. The second trend aforementioned most likely has a direct correlation to the preceding trend. If young adults are unable to find and keep stable jobs and have a steady income, they will not be able to afford their own houses and therefore, will continue to live with their parents for longer. If the unemployment problems continue to rise, we might even begin to see adults living with their parents for even longer amounts of time, eventually to the point where the parents, and their children are all trying to survive off of the parents' social security and savings. This would be an extreme case, but is it plausible to believe that if unemployment doesn't improve soon, something like that could begin happening?
This article discusses how the number of families across the United States with at least one unemployed parent has been increasing for the last eight years. Statistics show that this number has increased by 33% on average. However, there were some states that had an increase of as much as 148%. What is causing some states to have such huge increases in unemployment?
Perhaps the reason behind such a trend lies within an uncommon idea, such as the ideas and trends of economic patterns discovered and described in Freakonomics. It would be hard to provide the answers to such complex problems with such minimal knowledge of economics. Other trends described in this article also include young adult children living with their parents for longer periods of time and the fact that many young adults are unable to find stable jobs. The second trend aforementioned most likely has a direct correlation to the preceding trend. If young adults are unable to find and keep stable jobs and have a steady income, they will not be able to afford their own houses and therefore, will continue to live with their parents for longer. If the unemployment problems continue to rise, we might even begin to see adults living with their parents for even longer amounts of time, eventually to the point where the parents, and their children are all trying to survive off of the parents' social security and savings. This would be an extreme case, but is it plausible to believe that if unemployment doesn't improve soon, something like that could begin happening?
Monday, November 4, 2013
UK jobless total falls by 18,000 to 2.49 million: BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24547749
The article summarizes the fact that the number of people unemployed in the UK dropped by 18,000. The number of people claiming JobSeeker's Allowance (an unemployment benefit program in the UK) has also dropped by almost 42,000 people. Also, the number of people in work was at an all-time high. These numbers represent a positive jump in the unemployment problems, at least for the UK economy.
The article also reports that the standard of living has been improving and is predicted to continue increasing over the next few months to a year. As for why these numbers have been improving so much.. it cannot be due to any singular reason. Generally when trends like this occur, many economic aspects are working hand in hand to shift the economy one way or the other. Contrary to when the economy takes a significant negative hit where sometimes a singular reason can cause the economy to deteriorate rapidly. Reasons for this upward rise could be due to programs or principles instilled by the government; for example, stricter requirements to receive government assistance, economic growth, and creating incentive to work all are factors that could cause unemployment rates to go down and for the number of people claiming JobSeeker Allowance to also go down. Once people have an incentive to work for something, (or in some cases an incentive to want to stop collecting assistance from the government), then their efforts will tend to be greater, and in turn, the opportunity for positive economic trends like this is also greater.
The article summarizes the fact that the number of people unemployed in the UK dropped by 18,000. The number of people claiming JobSeeker's Allowance (an unemployment benefit program in the UK) has also dropped by almost 42,000 people. Also, the number of people in work was at an all-time high. These numbers represent a positive jump in the unemployment problems, at least for the UK economy.
The article also reports that the standard of living has been improving and is predicted to continue increasing over the next few months to a year. As for why these numbers have been improving so much.. it cannot be due to any singular reason. Generally when trends like this occur, many economic aspects are working hand in hand to shift the economy one way or the other. Contrary to when the economy takes a significant negative hit where sometimes a singular reason can cause the economy to deteriorate rapidly. Reasons for this upward rise could be due to programs or principles instilled by the government; for example, stricter requirements to receive government assistance, economic growth, and creating incentive to work all are factors that could cause unemployment rates to go down and for the number of people claiming JobSeeker Allowance to also go down. Once people have an incentive to work for something, (or in some cases an incentive to want to stop collecting assistance from the government), then their efforts will tend to be greater, and in turn, the opportunity for positive economic trends like this is also greater.
Friday, November 1, 2013
Shutdown Will Hinder True Gauge of U.S. Economy: NY Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/23/business/economy/shutdown-will-hinder-true-gauge-of-economy.html?_r=0
The article summarizes how government and economic statistics were skewed due to the government shut down. This is because many of the employment statistics and such could not be accounted for due to all of the government workers and employees. To fix this problem, economists needed to come up with new ways to quantitatively measure the economy's strength.
Also mentioned in the article was the fact that only 148,000 jobs were created compared to the 185,000 jobs expected to be created in the month of September. While this may seem like a negative thing for the economy, and it definitely is in some respect, other aspects of the overall economy must be analyzed as well.
Stocks rose due to the stimulus and purchase of $85 billion bonds per month. This is expected to continue well into 2014. Overall, I believe that these purchases greatly impact the economy and benefit it. With these purchases, the interest rates remain low and borrowing costs are decreased. Also, the 500 index was up by 23% just this year so far. If these purchases continue, it seems there will be little except positive effects on the economy. All of the influence that it has put on the economy so far has helped. Hopefully within the next few months we will continue seeing similar results, and perhaps even begin reaching the amount of jobs aspired to be created.
The article summarizes how government and economic statistics were skewed due to the government shut down. This is because many of the employment statistics and such could not be accounted for due to all of the government workers and employees. To fix this problem, economists needed to come up with new ways to quantitatively measure the economy's strength.
Also mentioned in the article was the fact that only 148,000 jobs were created compared to the 185,000 jobs expected to be created in the month of September. While this may seem like a negative thing for the economy, and it definitely is in some respect, other aspects of the overall economy must be analyzed as well.
Stocks rose due to the stimulus and purchase of $85 billion bonds per month. This is expected to continue well into 2014. Overall, I believe that these purchases greatly impact the economy and benefit it. With these purchases, the interest rates remain low and borrowing costs are decreased. Also, the 500 index was up by 23% just this year so far. If these purchases continue, it seems there will be little except positive effects on the economy. All of the influence that it has put on the economy so far has helped. Hopefully within the next few months we will continue seeing similar results, and perhaps even begin reaching the amount of jobs aspired to be created.
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