One More Thing: The Truth About Un- & Under-employment

Last one in today's multi-post rant, I promise.

Every time I hear a story on the "official" unemployment numbers, usually on WNYC, I want to throw my radio at the wall.  It's so rarely mentioned that the monthly percentage hardly reflects the reality of joblessness, declining income, and underemployment.

Consider those whose unemployment ran out.

Consider those whose new jobs pay a fraction of what they were previously making.

Or those who stopped filing because they were contracted for sufficient work... but were never paid for it.

Paul Krugman's editorial today brings up a related point: I can't tell you how many of my still-employed friends are now doing twice or three times the work they were previously doing before their colleagues were laid off and never replaced.  Here's where "structural unemployment" is factual: the two full-time jobs I have been courted for in the past several months were not individual jobs at all, but two or three distinct roles packed into one.  It was both insulting and deflating that these companies (small businesses where hours and duties are typically already demanding) sought mid- to high-level director and higher positions with expertise in two to three distinct areas.  One of the two companies had been looking to fill the role for over a year - no surprise that someone who has senior level experience in sales, publicity, and marketing either doesn't exist or isn't willing to work for small-company-salary.  Oh, and they clearly wanted someone under 35.  It's as ridiculous as the idea of a woman looking for a husband with a 100-point checklist of perfection.  Unless you're Angelina Jolie, or in this case, Google or Goldman, time for a reality check.

Today in Bloomberg Is Stupid News

I'm all a'Twitter(ing)! Brian Lehrer is doing a segment on Bloomberg right now, including where his money goes. Turn on WNYC right now or listen online!

Michael Bloomberg claims that the upcoming election is a referendum on his record. So, what does the record tell us? The New Yorker’s Joyce Purnick has just published the sweeping biography Mike Bloomberg: Money, Power, Politics, which tells his story from childhood in Boston through his controversial bid for a third term. She examines the Bloomberg record and what’s at stake this fall.

I like this Joyce Purnick lady already. Some points being made:

Bloomie gets testy with journalists and refuses to answer when they ask about his third-term grab.

Fact that he was a former chain smoker and has a "constant struggle with weight" may have been the selfish reasons for the smoking ban and the calories on menus (both things I support, but seriously, NYC as B's personal playground? we should all be so lucky).

Is his "improvement of education" actually making kids smarter, or sacrificing learning to testing?

Heyyy, remember when the Republican convention was in NYC back in '04? You know, our city, that's 5-to-1 Democrat, where Bloomberg appeared as a Republican, when the NYPD cracked down big time on anyone protesting? Go America! The lawsuits that resulted cost the city a fortune. Bloomberg still contends protesters should have stayed home.

Whatever happened to the (totally elitist) plan for congestion pricing?

From the excellent comments section: "Since Bloomberg started pursuing politics his reported net worth has gone up 10 times. He has gone from a moderately wealthy man to the richest New Yorker while ignoring proscriptions from the City Conflict of Interest Board about how he should not be involved with his business and its client companies, nearly all of whom also do business with the city. Bloomberg has also, since he started pursuing politics in 1977, has been using his own charities and those run under the auspices of the city for political purposes which has skewed honest debate."

Two words: 2012 Olympics.

Worst Job Ever

Brian Lehrer is interviewing the CFO on GM right now and is not holding back. Go to wnyc.org to listen.

Peter Vallone Jr Thinks the Term Limits Issue is an Emergency of Epic Proportions

Councilman Peter Vallone Jr, of whom I was formerly a fan because of his stance on NYC sovereignty*, said on WNYC this morning that holding a special election about the term limit extension would be chaos and duh, expensive, so our only choice is for the Council to decide it.

Um, no, Pete. Believe it or not, there's a third option. The original option. Get your resume together or start your mayoral exploratory committee, because two terms is all you get.


*The idea that NYC should become its own state. This sounds stupid but would in fact benefit us because a shameful amount of the money we send to Albany never comes back to us. Also, the state senate is currently a Republican majority. In other words, upstaters essentially echo Palin: damn elite city dwellers, fuck you!