is two things, one, is we're so polarized and have been on this extreme kick since dick nixon. Two, is the black man in the white house. The powers to be can't and won't let anything good happen on his watch cause they can't be having another off white, off male person in the white house. If anyone can't see that they're blind.
If you think its bad now wait until we have a Hillary in the white house. Shit will get crazy then you watch and see.
I will vote for her or any other woman as I think we need to break this cycle of old white men in the oval office. We got the white part fixed now we need to get the men part done.
I'm an old white man btw.

or dollar + benefits value placed on new jobs. We all know that $20/hr. jobs were lost and the replacement job is $7.50/hr.

That way we could see in one number that the job recovery is a myth.

which has gone up about 2% in the last year.

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm

(though it doesn't specifically look at the value of new jobs, just total jobs).

will then die.

...roughly about 3.5 million people hit retirement age each year now, so that's about 15 million more people potentially leaving the workforce.

The larger metrics there, which give us the balance that we do have, is that the recession hit potential retirees pretty hard, and not as many are actually retiring as expected. The labor force participation of older people is at a record high. The second part of that balance is that younger people are going to college at record high rates - something like 70%, versus a historic average of about 50%.

What that could lead to is a well-educated younger workforce, replacing at some time soon an aging population of working people at retirement age. Or so the statistics suggest.

I know that my Party will stand up for the workers, put Main Street ahead of Wall Street, and make the banks work for the American pe--. Hey! Wait, a cotton-picking minute.

Thatnks for the chuckle octafish! Wish it were absurdist humor, but alas, it's not.

Me, too. During much of the 20th century, when in positions of leadership, members of the Democratic Party applied the powers of government to make life better for ALL Americans. It's how we tackled the Great Depression and won World War II. It's how we went to the moon and prevented the Cold War from becoming World War III.

Today, all that is nearly forgotten. Tee vee doesn't mention any of that. All the media do is talk of the great times Ronald Reagan wrought, without mentioning all he did to screw the poor and middle class to benefit the rich and super rich. The reality is these are the richest times in human history. David Stockman estimates that 7/8 of all wealth ever was created since 1981. Most of it, for some odd reason, ended up in a very few pockets.

Were I Party Boss, I'd hammer out a platform with planks made of jobs, technology, education and the arts. We would advance legislation that creates new jobs when the economy can't or won't. We could, like JFK envisaged with the New Frontier, use space exploration as a substitute for arms industries -- good jobs with a difference, they would help create wealth through new technologies that could help solve the energy crisis, de-pollute the planet, cure the ill, take care of the old and infirm, end poverty, end hunger, etc. etc. etc.

But no. We need austerity and the economy will come around and we'll have full employment and if you look, you'll find work. And if you bellyache, there's plenty of room and company under the bus.

where 50% of the country is poor, and it's all doom and gloom.

"15 million more working age people have entered the job market"

uh huh, and how many working age people have eagerly retired in that same time period?

"long term unemployment is a growing crisis"

percent of the unemployed who are out of work over 27 weeks
May 2010 - 44.9
May 2011 - 44.7
May 2012 - 42.6
May 2013 - 37.4
May 2014 - 34.6

Number unemployed 27 weeks or more
May 2010 - 6.6 million
May 2011 - 6.2 million
May 2012 - 5.4 million
May 2013 - 4.4 million
May 2014 - 3.4 million

so yes, that problem is certainly growing by leaps and bounds.

of course, this is also true

participation rate
May 2007 - 66%
May 2010 - 64.9
May 2011 - 64.2
May 2012 - 63.8
May 2013 - 63.4
May 2014 - 62.8

Hard to tell how many of those people are willingly retiring.

Myself, I am very much looking forward to the time when I can AFFORD to leave the labor force. I expect that will be when I am 57.

But my full time job was hopefully being advertised in the paper starting yesterday. As soon as it is filled, I will start working part time.

I am very much looking forward to that too.

Here's another fun stat

people aged 16-19

1973 (January) - 15.6 million
1974 - 16.0 million
1975 - 16.3 million
1976 - 16.5
1977 - 16.7
1978 - 16.7 (including me)
1988 - 14.6
1998 - 15.4
2008 - 17.0
2014 - 16.7

those 16-19 year olds in 1973 are now 57-60.

If somebody is lucky (or smart) they can retire at age 55 with 30 years of service and a full pension. If they were really smart, they can retire at age 38 from the military with a full pension and medical benefits.

Since a greater percentage of those 16-19 year olds are entering college instead of the labor force, people about my age are retiring about as fast as young people are entering (I would guess, not having detailed statistics on retirements).

Too many people in this economy keep working when they don't have to. My former boss was a disabled veteran with full retirement benefits and a spouse who was working. He shouldn't have needed the money, but for years he kept coming to work all angry and making everybody around him angry as well. When he retired finally, a job opened up for somebody else who didn't have his retirement income.

The city manager is another example. Tells me he is gonna retire in 3 or 4 years and make over $100,000 a year in retirement.

Which means he could retire right now and probably make $80,000 a year. If I had that option I would retire so fast, the sonic boom would break windows in seven surrounding counties.

And a good paying job would open up for somebody else.

Some people seem to get some sort of perverse joy out of doom and gloom. Maybe because of their own personal situation. I know I used to rage in the late 1990s when I was stuck as a temp, unable to find a real job (without a two hour commute). I used to get furious about all the pundits blathering on about how great the economy was.

It certainly was not great for me - even in the roaring 90s.

It's never gonna be perfect, but generalized doom and gloom doesn't really help those who actually need help.