Pundits and liberal strategists alike keep scratching their heads as to why Joe Biden’s economic approval ratings are so low. But the sweeping rollback of pandemic-era social programs is a glaringly obvious culprit.
Unemployment numbers are a perfect encapsulation of this. It only measures a fraction of people who are actually out of work.
It doesn’t measure:
People who are underemployed (e.g. working 20 hours because you can’t get a 40 hour job)
People who left a job of their own will
Gig work
Contract work
People who were on unemployment, but at 6 months where kicked off even though they still don’t have a job
So months into an employment crisis (like we saw in 2020-2021 and are still seeing), when loads of people who had unemployment who still don’t have jobs, but fall off because they timed out, the numbers suddenly look great! “Unemployment numbers are improving” no the fuck they’re not. The numbers just don’t measure what’s actually happening on the ground.
The problem is: all of this is a feature, not a bug. Capitalism isn’t supposed to benefit us. We’re the fodder. We’re meant to be kept in desperate situations because it keeps us compliant. If you’re constantly at risk of homelessness and starvation, then you’ll take whatever shit job you can and take whatever abuse you have to just to keep a paycheck coming in. That’s not a distortion of the system. It’s not a failure of our economic system. That’s the system working as intended.
Unemployment numbers are a perfect encapsulation of this. It only measures a fraction of people who are actually out of work.
It doesn’t measure:
So months into an employment crisis (like we saw in 2020-2021 and are still seeing), when loads of people who had unemployment who still don’t have jobs, but fall off because they timed out, the numbers suddenly look great! “Unemployment numbers are improving” no the fuck they’re not. The numbers just don’t measure what’s actually happening on the ground.
The problem is: all of this is a feature, not a bug. Capitalism isn’t supposed to benefit us. We’re the fodder. We’re meant to be kept in desperate situations because it keeps us compliant. If you’re constantly at risk of homelessness and starvation, then you’ll take whatever shit job you can and take whatever abuse you have to just to keep a paycheck coming in. That’s not a distortion of the system. It’s not a failure of our economic system. That’s the system working as intended.