"The Get America Working! approach would work, in effect, by correcting a major price distortion. The current U.S. Internal Revenue Code taxes employment far more heavily than it does the use of natural resources. This distortion has grown progressively worse as payroll taxes have grown. Revising this distortion would increase employment, equity and overall economic vigor importantly. And it would do so by responding to market price signals, not through clumsy and expensive government interventions."
Part-Time Workers Mask Unemployment
Date:
Wed, 07/15/2009
Source:
The New York Times
This New York Times article stresses that as normally reported unemployment statistics greatly understate the true level of un/underemployment in the U.S. The official 9.5% rate does not include "those who have given up looking for a job and those part-time workers who want to work full time." Counting those, the unemployment rate in many state is over 20% -- approaching Depression era levels.
