From the Economist: What goes up Excerpt: The point being made here is "Maybe the glory days are over ... ?" The US economy has been growing (finally) since 2014 - no NOT since Donald Dork's election! It was ain 2014 that it started to add jobs, the Employment-to-population Ratio having flat-lined since 2010 because a Replicant HofR refused Obama's requests for additional spending*. (See the E-to-p Ratio here.) If you look at the progress of the E-to-p Ratio you will note that projecting it means quite a while before it returns to its value just before the Sub-Prime Mess in 2008 - when it was at a value of almost 63%. So, where is the country going. Well, sorry to punch you dream-bubble, but the answer is that it will a good lonnnnnng time for it to reach 63% again from its present value of 60.5%. Whyzzat? Because the economy that sustained the value of 63% in 2008 is no longer around. Nope, those jobs are gone because of the closure of the businesses hiring personnel. Those smaller range businesses are not coming back because they left the US. There is nothing to come back to. Uncle Sam must create New Jobs, which it is doing. But those jobs that left the US were full of unqualified workers. They had only base talents. And the jobs that are being created require at least a basic vocational skill. And for the higher-end job, you need an Associates or Bachelor's degree. And who is getting those degrees? Given the outrageous cost of such degrees at the state postsecondary schools (average $12K per year), not enough people are pursuing them. It's time for Uncle Sam to realize that when it decided at the turn of the 20th century to offer free secondary-schooling - well now is the moment to offer free (or at least nearly-free) post-secondary education. Particularly at the first-level of vocational-jobs that require just a few months training ... *The Replicants figured that if the Unemployment Rate was high, so what? It doesn't affect the crowd of well-offs who fund our party! And maybe public disgust will outseat Obama! (Got that all wrong, didn't they?)
