Don't be on the wrong side of history

[Navy1960]

UK Unemployment

The employment rate and the number of people in employment have fallen. The number of unemployed people, the unemployment rate and the claimant count have all increased. The number of vacancies has fallen. The number of inactive people of working age and the inactivity rate have increased. Growth in average earnings, excluding bonuses, has fallen but earnings growth including bonuses has increased.

The employment rate for people of working age was 72.9 per cent for the three months to May 2009, down 0.9 from the previous quarter and down 2.0 over the year. This is the largest quarterly fall in the working age employment rate since comparable records began in 1971. The total number of people in employment for the three months to May 2009 was just under 29 million, down 269,000 over the quarter and down 543,000 over the year.
National Statistics Online

France Unemployment

AFP - France's unemployment rate shot up to 8.7 percent in the first quarter of 2009, fresh data from the national statistics agency INSEE showed on Thursday.

"It's clearly a bad figure," Economy Minister Christine Lagarde said on French radio. "There has been a deterioration in the job situation which is quite simply a consequence of a deterioration in the economic situation."

The unemployment rate was 7.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008, she said, revising downward an earlier figure of 7.8.

The figures refer to mainland France, excluding overseas departments such as the Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique which were crippled by weeks of strikes over pay earlier this year.

Including the overseas territories, the unemployment rate was 9.1 percent, according to INSEE.

France had a longstanding problem of a high underlying rate of joblessness even before the economic crisis, and economists have forecast that unemployment will pass 10 percent at the start of 2010.
France 24 | Unemployment jumps to 8.7 percent | France 24

On Thursday the BLS released the unemployment data for the month of June. A total of 467,000 jobs were lost in June and the unemployment rate remained almost the same at 9.5%.

The Eurostat also released the unemployment report for the EU but for the month of May. The unemployment rate in the Euro area stood at 9.5% (seasonally-adjusted) in May. In the expanded EU 27 states, the unemployment rate was 8.9% in May. An estimated 21.462 million in the EU27, of which 15.013 million were in the Euro area, were unemployed last month.

The lowest unemployment rates were in:
The Netherlands - 3.2%
Austria - 4.3%

The highest unemployment rates were in:
Spain - 18.7%
Latvia - 16.3%
Estonia - 15.6%
Spain: Highest Unemployment Rate in EU at 18.7% -- Seeking Alpha


Hardly a ringing endorsment of European Govt. sponsored medicine. In fact if you look a the numbers and the claims made that socialized medicine like the EU will bring about a positive result in the economy it really says that socialized medicine has had little impact on helping those economies. The NYT article aside which I'm sure had no agenda or bias when it was written, I tend to tust the figures from the EU and those nations themselves.

 

[Gunny]

Today it would be hard to find one member of Congress who openly advocates the abolition of Medicare or Social Security. It's true that during the Bush Presidency, right-wing Republicans tried to weaken, dilute and privatize both. But their proposals were always passed off as attempts to "strengthen" these programs that have become two of the most popular and widely respected institutions of government.

Of course it wasn't always so. Both Social Security and Medicare were incredibly controversial when they were passed - the first in 1937 and the second in 1964. In fact, their opponents sounded very much like today's Republicans as they denounced them for being "big government takeovers" - or, in the case of Medicare, "socialized medicine."

But it wasn't long after they were enacted that Social Security and Medicare became "third rails" in American politics. Former Senator Bob Dole once made a speech where he said: "I was there, fighting against Medicare." The TV spot reprising that speech during his 1996 campaign against Bill Clinton helped seal Dole's defeat.

The view shared by most Americans - and all senior citizens - was summed up in the slogan for the 2005 campaign to defeat Bush's privatization program: "Hands off my Social Security."

No one brags that their father or grandfather lead the fight to oppose Social Security or Medicare - any more than they brag that their forbearer lead the fight against civil rights. But of course in the 1960's, civil rights did not have the universal acclaim it has today.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had many detractors who thought his agitation for justice was downright subversive. Others thought that he wanted to move too fast. That extended to the Pastors - many men of good will - who asked him to call off his protests in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963. It was to those Pastors that he wrote his famous letter from the Birmingham jail: "Why We Can't Wait."

In 1963 most people would not have dreamed that just a few decades hence, a national holiday would be named after the young organizer and agitator, Martin Luther King.

Every major social advance is surrounded by controversy and conflict. That's because every time there is change in the status quo there are winners and losers. The controversy over President Obama's health care reform does not center mainly on "differences in approach" or academic disagreements over the way that health care systems should be designed in some ideal world. They center instead on battles over wealth and power - just as they did when the Congress created Social Security or Medicare, or passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Robert Creamer: Memo to Members of Congress: Don't Be on the Wrong Side of History

Good idea. Don't be on the wrong side of history. Say no to unconstitutional, federal government meddling in healthcare and the private sector as a whole.

 

[Chris]

Every other Western democracy has a single payer system and they pay HALF per capita what we pay for healthcare, and they cover everyone with results that are as good or better than ours.

It is whinny little liars like you that are holding America back.

Move to one of those socialist worker's paradises, then.

Problem solved, you simpering little pussy.

First you lie, then you call me a pussy for calling you on your lie.

You are still a liar.

 

[Chris]

Published: June 2, 2009
PARIS — The unemployment rate in the European Union pushed higher in April, indicating that nascent signs of economic recovery had yet to be felt in the labor market.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for the 16 countries that use the euro currency rose to 9.2 percent in April, the highest rate since September 1999, from 8.9 percent in March, the Eurostat agency, the bloc’s statistics office, said Tuesday. In April 2008, the unemployment rate was 7.3 percent.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/03/bu...euro.html?_r=1

U.S. unemployment rate hits 9.5%, a 26-year high
In June, 467,000 jobs were lost; analysts had predicted 350,000. Despite positive signs for the economy in recent weeks, the report is evidence that the jobs market remains troubled.
By Don Lee
9:09 AM PDT, July 2, 2009
Reporting from Washington -- The nation's unemployment rate edged up to a 26-year high of 9.5% in June as employers slashed nearly half a million jobs over the month across a wide spectrum of industries, the Labor Department reported today.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-us-unemployment3-2009jul03,0,5237342.story

 

[Oddball]

Lie?? What lie??

If the grass is really so much greener on the other side of the pond, it behooves you to shut your sniveling pussy yap and get the hell over to where you'll be happier.

My ancestors had more nerve in their toe nails than you have in your entire body. They left Europe because they wanted a better life, where all you do is piss and moan about how much America sucks.

You give "pussy" a whole new meaning.

 

[Chris]

Lie?? What lie??

If the grass is really so much greener on the other side of the pond, it behooves you to shut your sniveling pussy yap and get the hell over to where you'll be happier.

My ancestors had more nerve in their toe nails than you have in your entire body. They left Europe because they wanted a better life, where all you do is piss and moan about how much America sucks.

You give "pussy" a whole new meaning.

This is the ridiculous get out of America because Dude can't admit that another country in this planet of 6 billion people does something better than we do.

How sad for you.

 

[Oddball]

If what the rest of the world is doing is so great, and what America is doing is so wrong, get the fuck out...You should have plenty of options.

 

[Chris]

If what the rest of the world is doing is so great, and what America is doing is so wrong, get the fuck out...You should have plenty of options.

No, I would rather stay here and help by opposing people like you.

 

[AVG-JOE]

The bankrupt Medicare/Medicaid and nearly bankrupt Social Security are being touted as evidence of success??

Desperation really must be setting in!

Social Security Rocks!

It runs at an efficiency of less than 1% FICA taxes collected for all overhead, in addition to handling all of the paperwork for SSI. It is a dedicated tax for a dedicated program. It is one of the few taxes we pay that we know the destination of. It is part of the 5% of the federal government We, The People of the United States should keep when all this is over.

-Joe

 

[DiveCon]

Lie?? What lie??

If the grass is really so much greener on the other side of the pond, it behooves you to shut your sniveling pussy yap and get the hell over to where you'll be happier.

My ancestors had more nerve in their toe nails than you have in your entire body. They left Europe because they wanted a better life, where all you do is piss and moan about how much America sucks.

You give "pussy" a whole new meaning.

This is the ridiculous get out of America because Dude can't admit that another country in this planet of 6 billion people does something better than we do.

How sad for you.

and as usual, you missed the point of what he said

 

[DiveCon]

The bankrupt Medicare/Medicaid and nearly bankrupt Social Security are being touted as evidence of success??

Desperation really must be setting in!

Social Security Rocks!

It runs at an efficiency of less than 1% FICA taxes collected for all overhead, in addition to handling all of the paperwork for SSI. It is a dedicated tax for a dedicated program. It is one of the few taxes we pay that we know the destination of. It is part of the 5% of the federal government We, The People of the United States should keep when all this is over.

-Joe

except its NOT protected, they use it for other things

 

[Oddball]

If what the rest of the world is doing is so great, and what America is doing is so wrong, get the fuck out...You should have plenty of options.

No, I would rather stay here and help by opposing people like you.

Yeah...It's much easier to piss, whine, moan, bitch, and kvetch than it is to do anything about improving your life with your own actions.

BTW....You've still failed to point out where I lied.

 

[Chris]

The bankrupt Medicare/Medicaid and nearly bankrupt Social Security are being touted as evidence of success??

Desperation really must be setting in!

Social Security Rocks!

It runs at an efficiency of less than 1% FICA taxes collected for all overhead, in addition to handling all of the paperwork for SSI. It is a dedicated tax for a dedicated program. It is one of the few taxes we pay that we know the destination of. It is part of the 5% of the federal government We, The People of the United States should keep when all this is over.

-Joe

Shhh....

Taking care of the old and the sick is against Republican core values.

 

[DiveCon]

The bankrupt Medicare/Medicaid and nearly bankrupt Social Security are being touted as evidence of success??

Desperation really must be setting in!

Social Security Rocks!

It runs at an efficiency of less than 1% FICA taxes collected for all overhead, in addition to handling all of the paperwork for SSI. It is a dedicated tax for a dedicated program. It is one of the few taxes we pay that we know the destination of. It is part of the 5% of the federal government We, The People of the United States should keep when all this is over.

-Joe

Shhh....

Taking care of the old and the sick is against Republican core values.

another liberal lie

 

[AVG-JOE]

The bankrupt and Medicare/Medicaid and nearly bankrupt Social Security are being touted as evidence of success??

Desperation really must be setting in!

Social Security and Medicare has taken care of my father and my mother for years and is not bankrupt.

Nice try, though.

Medicare is hamstrung by the private insurance companies getting to do the health care paperwork for workers between the ages of just born and 65, reaping the cream of premium-paying years and then dumping us into the arms of the the tax payers when we start to need more services from the health care industry.

Social Security, on the other hand insures 96% of Americas legal workers against disability during their working years and makes a tidy nest egg for the winners who are smart enough remain healthy while they're forced to pay into the system all their working lives.

Social Security Rocks!

-Joe

 

[AVG-JOE]

The bankrupt Medicare/Medicaid and nearly bankrupt Social Security are being touted as evidence of success??

Desperation really must be setting in!

Social Security Rocks!

It runs at an efficiency of less than 1% FICA taxes collected for all overhead, in addition to handling all of the paperwork for SSI. It is a dedicated tax for a dedicated program. It is one of the few taxes we pay that we know the destination of. It is part of the 5% of the federal government We, The People of the United States should keep when all this is over.

-Joe

except its NOT protected, they use it for other things

Who is this 'they' you speak of? I thought it went "We" The People?

-Joe

 

[DiveCon]

Social Security Rocks!

It runs at an efficiency of less than 1% FICA taxes collected for all overhead, in addition to handling all of the paperwork for SSI. It is a dedicated tax for a dedicated program. It is one of the few taxes we pay that we know the destination of. It is part of the 5% of the federal government We, The People of the United States should keep when all this is over.

-Joe

except its NOT protected, they use it for other things

Who is this 'they' you speak of? I thought it went "We" The People?

-Joe

"they" being our congresscritters

 

[Chris]

If what the rest of the world is doing is so great, and what America is doing is so wrong, get the fuck out...You should have plenty of options.

No, I would rather stay here and help by opposing people like you.

Yeah...It's much easier to piss, whine, moan, bitch, and kvetch than it is to do anything about improving your life with your own actions.

BTW....You've still failed to point out where I lied.

Go back and read your post.

And my life is excellent by the way. I own a home, have a beautiful GF, am in good health, and make lots of money in a job I love.

 

[Oddball]

No, I would rather stay here and help by opposing people like you.

Yeah...It's much easier to piss, whine, moan, bitch, and kvetch than it is to do anything about improving your life with your own actions.

BTW....You've still failed to point out where I lied.

Go back and read your post.

And my life is excellent by the way. I own a home, have a beautiful GF, am in good health, and make lots of money in a job I love.

No, you point out where I lied and provide proof.

And if your life is so great, why do spend a couple of hours a night here, whining-n-crying about how much everything in America sucks, huh??

 

[AVG-JOE]

except its NOT protected, they use it for other things

Who is this 'they' you speak of? I thought it went "We" The People?

-Joe

"they" being our congresscritters

"Then by (insert your Deity here) we take it back."​

-Kevin Costner, as 'Robin Hood'​