Some of the USA job numbers is due to end of season temporary work, but, I also believe the people being called 'new' to the unemployment situation are actually repeatedly returning to unemployment because companies are finding it more cheaper to hire temporary and contract workers rather than permanent employees.
There is a problem with unemployment globally because of cheap products putting long standing manufacturers out of business.
For every unemployed worker in the global market place there is economic contracture. In small and isolated instances that does not mean much, but, on long term and consistent basis that is a problem.
...New Zealand Comfort Group (click here) general manager Chris Taylor said Dunlop Living's furniture division had been devastated by competition from cheap imports and the global economic downturn and its bed manufacturing would be shifted to Sleepyhead's plant at Otahuhu.
Taylor said the furniture division could not be supported as a "long-term sustainable business model".
Representatives of New Zealand Comfort Group met with Dunlop Living staff yesterday to let them know how they would be affected by the restructuring of the business....
I have to question whether global unemployment numbers and dynamics should be explored at the World Trade Organization.
There has been a shift by Wall Street to produce products cheaply in countries where people work for impoverished wages. India and China are seeing higher manufacturing rates, but, yet the quality of life of their people lag behind in that reality. Labor does not equate to quality of life.The governments and critics of The Globalists can say what they want, but, the demonstrators have a point at times that cannot be understated.
The problem of course is that established capitalistic societies as found in Europe and North America have a difficult time competing with impoverished labor. There needs to be an equation countries like China and India have to meet in order to participate in a real way in the global market place. That means the people working to produce the goods these countries sell improve their quality of life, education and health. What is occurring instead is the 'cheap labor market' is literally destroying the global economies. If there aren't good standards of living and quality of life there is NO market place for goods as everyone is poor and unable to achieve status.
Unemployment the greatest economic challenge: WTO chief (click title to entry - thank you)
By Hao Li | November 22, 2010 4:08 PM EST
...Moreover, Strauss-Kahn said unemployment marginalizes people from society and even undermines their belief in institutions and democracy.
IF one looks objectively at the goals of capitalism it is actually a self-defeating strategy. It is to make higher profits while reducing costs. Well some of that cost is the very labor that participates in the market place where goods are purchased. When Capitalists don't hire people and mechanize and downsize and seek cheap labor markets they in turn are destroying their own market places.
Labor unions are not the problem. Labor unions when they are as concerned for a company and its MARKET SHARE can be good partners in maintaining a healthy market place. The quality of life Labor Unions bring to the table of any negotiation has to be as important as the products the company produces and why they need to be taken seriously and treated like parasites. Labor Unions are not parasites, they have a very important role in insuring safe working conditions, good wages, health benefits and retirement provisions. How can any worker make a life time commitment to a job without some sort of reassurance that retirement will be maintained in the standard of living and quality of life they are accustomed.
Capitalism is not the friend of the market place if it is draconian to labor. It just isn't. It is also draconian to governments when companies and the wealthy do not participate in sovereign issues that provide stability and solvency to governments.
I have to laugh when I hear comments that blame on problems in the market place. You know, I've never been handed a fist full of money by the government after they printed it and told to distribute this. Have you? So, how does the money get from the government's WEALTH to reinvestment in the private sector? How do contracts become 'real income' to companies that supply services to the government. The government is the people. It's silly to blame a 'philosophy' as the reason for economic trouble. There is no law in the country stating Keynesian Economics is required in every market place the USA government participates. By the way, without Keynesian Economics how does the government participate in the market place and receive services?
Keynesian economics (click here) is a theory of total spending in the economy (called aggregate demand) and its effects on output and inflation. Although the term has been used (and abused) to describe many things over the years, six principal tenets seem central to Keynesianism. The first three describe how the economy works….
The fact of the matter is there are larger dynamics at work on the USA economy that is observed globally and it has been nearly impossible for the USA to push back against falling incomes to their Middle Class and Poor. That isn't good. The American Way DICTATES there is a ladder to success for everyone and that door is rapidly closing. So while the Executive Branch is doing everything it can to prevent further contracture of an economy that has impact on global conditions there are elements with the legislative branch that simply plays politics without any solutions for the concerns of the Executive Branch. Cutting taxes for the wealthy in HOPES that USA labor markets will increase is idiocy when there are global forces at work to prevent that.
I don't care if politically no one wants to look at these realities. They are realities and until they are addressed it will be increasingly difficult to 'drive' the USA economy back to health and vitality in the way we understood it before 2007 and 2008.
What I believe happened during the Bush/Cheney administration is that "W" looked across the labor wasteland of the USA and saw no jobs being created. He also knew his USA policies would drive economies outside the USA to flourish. So, "W" and his administration 'took an attitude' that every American could be a million if they could own a house. Right. So, how to Americans maintain house payments without expanding job markets? The strategy of the Bush/Cheney administration was designed to support the perception of a growing economy while in fact it was literally creating debt that would skyrocket. No one is going to tell me Bush didn't know this was occurring. It was occurring in his administration and it was covered up to some extent by exorbitant spending by the federal government.
The challenge now is to recover the USA economy, stabilize it against the global tide to have it otherwise and protect the jobs it creates. The global economy, including Europe, has to participate in policies that protect their economies as much as they see the military as a requirement to protect their sovereign borders. It is the same thing and a country cannot have one without another. There are very clear reasons to view agreements within the WTO include fair wages for work, growing economies and stable sovereign countries. It is ridiculous to see it otherwise..
