Sunday, July 8, 2012

The only employment number that matters

Barack Obama has spent a trillion dollars trying to improve this number.   This chart shows the percentage of Americans who are working. 

Do you think that spending other people's money on your friends and supporters to "stimulate" the economy just might be a mistake?  Does it do more harm than good? 
Is this how FDR turned a recession into a long, long depression? 
In short, does having a pack of thieves at the top of the pyramid scare the crap out of people, and cause them to stop investing in employment?

Chart compliments of Greg Mankiw's blog, from the U.S. Department Of Labor. 

3 comments:

Dr Ralph said...

A perfect example of "The Gee-Whiz Graph" from chapter 5 of Darrell Huff's classic, "How To Lie With Statistics."

Here's a link to a PDF if you're too cheap to buy it.

The Whited Sepulchre said...

Yeah, you gotta watch that U.S. Department of Labor & Statistics. Always up to something, those guys !!

(Am saving the PDF, BTW.)

Dr Ralph said...

Surely you're not suggesting that makes it any less misleading? Or your reuse, either, for that matter?

Repeating something stupid doesn't make it any less stupid.