jobs & economy issue - 2011
DESCRIPTION
The Attleboro Democracy Magazine's first issue! Featuring a piece by Massachusetts Democratic Party Chairman John Walsh.TRANSCRIPT
Attleboro Democracy
Jobs and the Economy:
“On the Ropes”
_______________________________________
Fall, 2011
Politics ~ View from Attleboro
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Contents
Articles………………………………….
Unemployment Demystified……..page 4
Jeremy Denlea
A Jobs Tax Cut Without Jobs……page 5 Andrew Meehan
Massachusetts :
Leaving the Recession…………...page 6 Jim Humphrey
Financial Crisis at Home……......page 6
Timothy O’Neill
Guest Column…………………..............
Scott Brown Embarks on a
Jobs Tour………………………..page 7 John Walsh
Humor & Satire………………………..
My Meeting With the President...page 8 “John Finley”
From Our Readers………………………
America’s History Can Show Us
the Way Forward ……………..page 10 Richard Saunders
Fact Check……………………………...
America’s Debt Is Not New ….page 11
Stimulus Did Create Jobs……….page 11
Democrats of Attleboro Bulletin...page 12
From the Editor –
Although this magazine was written by Democrats, we
aspire that anyone of any political affiliation can read,
enjoy, and think deeply about our words. Andrew Meehan
– Editor, Attleboro Democracy
Welcome –
Welcome to the first edition of the “Attleboro Democracy.”
Inside you will find regular features and selected guest
columns about politics and government that impact the
citizens of Attleboro.
We hope you enjoy the first edition of the “Democracy”
and that you find the content thought-provoking and
informative.
__________
Every season we will focus on a political topic that
impacts the citizens of Attleboro. Our inaugural edition
focuses on “Jobs and the Economy.” Specifically, this issue
will focus on the mass job losses stemming from the recent
recession, as well as the recovery, which has been fueled by
government intervention (in the form of the “Stimulus
Package”) and private industry job creation programs.
The steady downward spiral on the economic front and the
increase in our country’s national debt that occurred at the
end of the last decade was founded upon a combination of
large tax cuts focused on the wealthy that could not muster
an expected trickle-down impact to Main Street, expensive
trillion-dollar wars, and a housing bust caused by massive
deregulation of the financial industry that created a near
collapse of our banking and financial system. These
elements created a “perfect storm” for our economy,
resulting in massive unemployment that our country has not
seen since the Great Depression. Everyone knows somebody
out of work as a result of this recession and it has spared few
industries or sectors of our economy.
In January 2009, President-elect Barack Obama was
handed an economy in peril. In this inaugural issue of
“Democracy,” we will discuss the pros and cons of the
strategies utilized by our government to “right the ship” and
put Americans back to work.
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Articles
Unemployment Numbers Demystified
Jeremy Micah Denlea
If I were to tell you that unemployment is at 32%
would you believe me? What if I said unemployment
was only at 3%? Which figure is correct? Well, it
depends on what method you use to determine the
unemployment rate.
With a seemingly endless amount of ways to
manipulate unemployment rates, almost any number is
mathematically correct in one way or another. This
article will discuss some of the most common methods
utilized to define unemployment numbers.
Which methods are correct? Which methods are
flawed? I will leave that for you to decide.
-How the Government Determines Unemployment:
Unemployment = Unemployed individuals actively
seeking work / Total labor force
Obviously, individuals with jobs are considered
employed. Those who are jobless, actively looking for
jobs and available for work are considered to be
unemployed. Individuals who are neither employed nor
unemployed are not considered to be in the labor force.
This means that those who were previously
employed but lost their job and have become so
discouraged that they are no longer actively seeking a
new job are not considered to be in the labor force. To
calculate unemployment numbers the government
would take the number of those considered unemployed
and divide that number by the total number of
individuals considered to be in the labor force. For all
intents and purposes, only individuals receiving
unemployment insurance are considered unemployed by
the government.
- The “Real” Unemployment Rate:
Unemployment = Total number of unemployed
individuals / Total working age population
The “real” unemployment rate includes every
person who is unemployed, not just those recently
unemployed and actively seeking employment. One
example of this would include individuals who are
stay-at home parents. Those who have been out of
the labor force for an extended period of time, who
are discouraged and not actively seeking
employment are another example.
Ergo, this rate is always higher than the
government’s unemployment numbers. When
compared, official government unemployment rates
are significantly lower than “real” unemployment
rates.
- The “Optimistic” Unemployment Rate:
Unemployment = Unemployed individuals
actively seeking work / Total working age population
One alternative method utilized to calculate
unemployment numbers is the “optimistic”
unemployment rate. In this case, only individuals
who are actively seeking employment and are able to
work are considered unemployed. However, this
number is divided by the total working age
population rather than the labor force population.
What this means is that stay at home parents and
those discouraged and no longer seeking
employment are considered to be employed.
Therefore, when using the “optimistic” method,
the unemployment rate appears to be significantly
lower than either the government’s determination or
the “real” unemployment rate.
- Conclusion
You have just been presented with three different
but valid methods of determining the unemployment
rate. In addition to these, there are many more meth-
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ods utilized by different organizations and economists.
Often, individuals will choose to utilize the method
that will best result in a number closest to their desired
unemployment rate. The methods and mathematics of
unemployment are often nothing more than propaganda
used to promote one’s specific objectives.
So, which method is correct? You tell me.
Jeremy Micah Denlea is a candidate for
Ward 5 City Council in Attleboro.
__________________
A Jobs Tax Cut Without Jobs
Andrew Meehan
Do you remember how back in December of 2010,
President Obama signed a bill that would extend the
Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans? In
theory, by not taxing the super-rich, they would spend
and invest that money, so that the rest of us could get
some jobs.
How’d that turn out so far?
For the last two years, Americans have been
desperate for some sort of solution to the most
important issue plaguing out nation – a very poor
economy and the unemployment problems that have
resulted from such a poor economy. Due to the Toxic
Assets Relief Program and the stimulus, a complete
economic collapse of the United States financial system
and economy were averted. However, problems remain
and our economy is still in dire need of some fix.
If we were to put a finger on a reason for our
economic woe, I think we could point to this: the
wealthy companies and individuals who kept their tax
break last year are not hiring.
It is hard to imagine the reason why they are not
hiring. Let’s face it. Even though the economy has
been bad, it’s been kept relatively stable. Companies
that once should have been afraid of collapsing are
now making huge profits. For instance, Exxon
Mobil, the richest company in the world, garnered a
profit last quarter alone of $10.7 billion, 69% better
than what they did last year (“Exxon Mobil profit
soars along with gas prices”, Washington Post,
Steven Musfon, 4-28-11).
The point of extending the Bush tax cuts for the
super wealthy were to allow them to invest in
America and hire more people. But as
unemployment rates clearly indicate, they’re not
doing so.
If the sole reason for having tax cuts for the
wealthiest Americans is to allow them to spend their
money and create jobs, and they’re not doing it,
there’s no point for those tax cuts to exist.
If corporations are going to squander their
opportunity to help America fix its economy, then
repealing the tax cut will help America square with
its gigantic national debt.
Many accredit the majority of the debt to the wars
in Iraq and Afghanistan. Those certainly have had
their affects, having cost more than $1.2 trillion
dollars. (The national debt is $14.5 trillion) The
stimulus package meanwhile cost $719 billion, but
also saved many jobs. But tax cuts for the rich,
combined with extremely low tax revenues from the
bad economy, have attributed for a loss of an
expected $6.3 trillion dollars (“Running in the red:
How the U.S., on the road to a surplus, detoured to
massive debt”, Washington Post, Lori Montgomery,
4-30-11). If we had that money back, the debt issue,
isn’t really an issue.
Unless America’s economy is in top shape, no
one should get a tax break for private pleasure. The
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reason the rich have one is to invest in the U.S.
economy so that it improves (which would be in rich
companies’ own self-interest). But they’re not.
If they’re not going to use it, they should lose
it.
Andrew Meehan is the Editor of the Attleboro
Democracy.
_____________________
Massachusetts: Leaving the Recession
Jim Humphrey
Massachusetts has been steadily adding jobs first in
the nation at one point in 2010) and moved us out of a
global recession that most of us have not seen in our
lifetimes faster than any other state. “The data has been
strong enough to move Massachusetts out of a
moderating recession into a recovery,’’ said Gus
Faucher, director of macroeconomics at Moody’s
Economy.com. “Massachusetts will be seeing job gains
pretty consistently from here on out.’’ (see March 24,
2010, Boston Globe – “Recession has ended in Mass.,
say analysts)
Massachusetts is a leader in the growth industries of
green tech and biotechnology and a top 6 state for
business (per May, 2011 CNBC rankings).
Massachusetts ranks 3rd
nationally in education
and 4th
in technology and innovation.
In terms of taxes Massachusetts is tied for 11th
nationally with Maryland and Illinois, which better
than all New England states except New Hampshire,
though per capita income in New Hampshire is over
20% lower than Massachusetts (see CNN Money
article, February, 2011).
While there is still room for improvement on the
tax front, recently improved revenues just moved
Massachusetts into a budget surplus (good for
business and good for needed government services
such as firemen, teachers, highway workers, and
government contracts creating private sector jobs). I
think we can shed the “Taxachusetts” moniker now.
Let’s try “The Tax Empire State” (note: New York is
just behind New Jersey for the highest tax burden
nationally).
Jim Humphrey is the Chairman of the Attleboro
Democratic City Committee.
_______________
A Financial Crisis at Home
Timothy O’Neill
We live in extraordinarily loud times. All around
us various and often contradictory messages assault
our awareness. We struggle to make sense of this
information and find ourselves lost almost to the
point of futility or worse; latching on to the ideology
that seems to speak with the most authority or
confidence. How do we find a way to determine
what is the truth? How do we pick through the
flotsam of disparate points of view to gather the few
nuggets of illumination?
One way may be to reduce the greater world
around us, the issues and all of the noise that comes
with them, to a reality that we can understand best of
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all: our own personal lives and experiences.
Let’s take for example the financial crisis our society
currently finds itself in.
It is possible for us to equate the “crisis” with a
financial setback in our own lives, a job loss for
instance. In a strategy very much like some voices
loudly opine we might conclude “I have no job and as a
result no money therefore will spend no money” but,
unfortunately life is never as black and white as the
loudest among us would like for us to believe.
The fact is that the last thing we would do is stop
spending money. We might cut back on spending or
reallocate spending to address particular issues but we
would not stop spending. We have families to provide
for. We have food to buy, we have household
obligations to service. Further, we might wisely
consider making investments in our ability to compete
with others suffering similar setbacks.
Being responsible individuals we also have assets
that we can draw upon to help us through this difficult,
decidedly temporary, situation; Unemployment benefits,
savings and lines of credit and, of course ourselves, our
experiences and abilities. Unless we are very fortunate
with our assets we would be confronted with the specter
of “Deficit Spending”, or spending more money than we
are taking in. Deficit spending in a financial crisis,
personal or institutional, is neither good nor bad it is a
reality and a necessity.
We would, of course, deficit spend! We would pay
our bills and feed our children even if it meant using
credit to do so, and in light of very recent discussions
how ridiculous is an artificially imposed “debt ceiling”
in a situation like this?
We would attempt to “Stimulate” our personal
economies by monetary investment. Taking a class,
buying a suit for a job interview or even repairs to the
family car would put us in a better position to take
advantage of opportunities that might come along or
may even be present as a result of our initial setback. A
responsible person might consider these strategies
integral to recovery!
Life would be a difficult proposition indeed if we
were unable to look at problems as temporary, just as
our national financial set back is temporary. It is
confusing and frightening, but it is temporary.
Despite the nonsensical paths our elected leader
have taken us down, personal experience tells us that
our and their task would be to manage our assets
responsibly and to navigate our way out of our
setback, hopefully to a stronger position then when
we started. We plan accordingly in our personal
lives; shouldn’t we expect the same from our
government?
Timothy O’Neill lives in Attleboro.
_______________
Guest Column
Scott Brown Embarks on a Jobs Tour
John Walsh
Earlier this month, Senator Scott Brown’s office
announced that he would spend the month of August
going around Massachusetts to discuss job creation.
The junior senator said the effort was a response
to “the high unemployment rate and the need to
create more jobs for the people of Massachusetts.”
Sen. Brown said he wanted to crisscross the
Commonwealth listening to voters.
I call shenanigans of Scott Brown’s “jobs tour.”
Massachusetts’ unemployment rate is well below
the national average and our economy is among the
strongest in the nation, but no one can argue that we
shouldn’t focus on creating more jobs. Folks who are
out of work would certainly appreciate an audience
with Senator Brown.
But, those aren’t the folks Scott Brown met on his
campaign-style tour.
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One-third of the events on Brown’s schedule were
speeches to local chambers of commerce. You’ll find
plenty of outstanding citizens at your local chamber of
commerce, from civic leaders to small business owners
looking to expand, but you won’t find too many
unemployed folks.
The times and locations for most of the events were
not publicized. And, as it turned out, most of the events
were nothing more than carefully chosen photo-ops
designed to generate press coverage for a politician
facing a tough reelection battle.
Most remarkably, none of the events at which Scott
Brown said he was planning to listen to Massachusetts
voters were fully open to the public. Brown chose to
hold these events at private venues where access could
be limited or places that understandably can’t be open to
everyday folks.
On the first day of the tour, Brown spoke to a
meeting of a beer brewers association which was only
open to members and their guests. From there he headed
to a Veteran’s Administration hospital, where concerns
over patient privacy and common decency call for
restricted access. Of course, Brown found time to talk to
the media at both events.
A few days later, a group of concerned voters was
turned away from a Brown campaign stop focused on
senior citizens because they were deemed too young by
the senator’s staff. Brown told the seniors who slipped
through the security net that Social Security and
Medicare benefits could be slashed and that he opposed
asking millionaires and billionaires to pay their fair
share to help get our nation’s fiscal house in order.
Later that week, Brown ignored a group of voters
gathered to speak with him in Amherst, leaving them in
a cloud of dust after he took off on the New England
Scenic Trail at a brisk pace with reporters in tow.
The rest of the tour followed in the same vein: The
final event of the tour, which was scheduled to take
place at a public library, was moved at the last minute to
a private venue.
What was billed as a series of open meetings where
Scott Brown could hear from Massachusetts voters and
present his plan to create jobs, turned out to be a
bunch of closed-door meetings choreographed to
create glowing press coverage and prevent anyone
who might disagree with the senator from coming
anywhere close to him.
Shenanigans.
John Walsh is the Chairman of the Massachusetts
Democratic Party.
_______________
Humor & Satire
My Meeting With the President
“John Finley”
Hi, my name is John Finley. My friend, Mr.
Meehan, suggested that I write to you all about an
important meeting I had a few months ago. Recently,
I had the opportunity to sit down with the President
of the United States in the Oval Office. I was advised
to bring up my meeting with President Obama.
During the meeting, as the President described to me
how he is fixing our economy. It was convincing.
The good news I learned of is something I’d like to
share.
Like many Americans, I too have been hit hard by
these economic times. For instance, I lost my small
business the other day. I ran a lemonade stand in the
center of town, until someone from the police
department came and shut down my growing
business because it was “unlicensed” (his words, not
mine). Currently, I now live in my mother’s
basement, although she doesn’t know it. She threw
me out of the house years ago, so I try not to alert
her of my presence.
This made my meeting with the President
additionally pressing. You see, I went to Washington
D.C. back in June to visit the place where I was
born: the American Irish Embassy. Back in 1976, my
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Attleboro Democracy, Fall 2011 9 | P a g e
father, Joseph Finley, was trying to lobby Congress to
reinstate the position of Postmaster General, and then
appoint himself to it, as he detested mailmen intensely
and wanted to deliver his own mail.
My mother Barbara went into labor, and fortunately
my father, who had been a physician until he was sued
and lost his license for medical malpractice, was able to
deliver the baby- me! – within the gates of the Irish
embassy.
As I trekked across our nation’s capital, I realized
that our country, torn apart by debt, lack of jobs, and a
dislike of math, needed some answers. I decided that I
needed to see President Obama. I stomped over to the
White House, near the gate for “foreign dignities” and
said to a guard in an assertive voice, “My name is John
Finley. I’m from the Irish Embassy.” Technically, true.
Now, as I would find out later, the guard I spoke to
was on the cusp of losing his job. A week earlier, he had
forbidden Bo, the Obama family dog, from frolicking in
the Rose Garden, fearing he might be an imposter dog.
The guard was devoted to proper security.
So the guard, who had been told earlier that the Irish
Ambassador would be lunching with the President, did
not want to make another mistake. He grabbed me by
the collar and ushered me to the President’s Oval
Office. “Here you are, Mr. Ambassador.”
I walked in, and there I saw him: the President of the
United States, Barack Obama, sitting at the resolute
desk. The President looked up and saw me approaching.
He smiled. “Good morning. You must be the new Irish
Ambassador.” The President shook my hand and
offered me a seat. Before he could utter a word, I got
straight to business.
“Mr. President, I have to be honest. There is one
thing bugging more than anything else in the world right
now. Sir, why isn’t the economy improving as much?
What have you done the last two years?
The President smiled kindly at me. “First of all,
Mr. Ambassador” said President Obama, “Let me
assure you the American economy is improving. It’s
been improving since the day I took office.”
Then the President began to convince me.
He’s a very calm, but personable man, the
President. He talked about “TARP”, or the “Toxic
Assets Relief Program” passed by the Bush
Administration, but overseen by the Obama
administration. It was called a bank bailout, but
really, it was a loan to the banks that were in danger
of collapsing back a few years ago due to bad
investments on their part. And so far, those banks are
close to paying bank the federal government with the
people’s money.
Then he talked about the federal auto bailout, a
loan to Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler.
Similarly, that also is close to being paid back.
Additionally, he said that in the coming era of
renewable energy, cars and companies are going to
change to accommodate declining oil resources. He
said that by keeping the American car companies
afloat they can lead the charge for that, and create
American jobs.
Then the President got to the stimulus. “What
town in America do live in when you’re not in
D.C.?” the President asked.
“Attleboro, Massachusetts,” I replied.
“Attleboro?” the President said quizzically.
“That’s far away for someone who lives in the
capitol don’t you think?”
I was about to interrupt and correct the President
that I didn’t live in the Capitol, but he continued:
“As far as I remember from Attleboro, they used
stimulus funds to prevent education layoffs, and
repave some roads. Not the biggest projects, but as I
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understand it, Attleboro’s a great place to live. Seems
like it helped though.”
I agreed. The President stopped speaking and as he
did, a rather curious incident occurred: the real Irish
ambassador walked into the room.
The President did a double-take, and then said, “I
think there might be a problem here.”
I was removed from the Oval Office rather quickly,
and then spent about a day in a compound answering
questions and had secret service agents making sure I
wasn’t infected with some sort of deadly disease.
But, my friends, it turned out well. The President
made it clear: things are improving under his tenure.
Jobs are on their way. Well, except for my security
guard friend.
This is a work of satirical fiction by Andrew Meehan.
While John Finley is fictitious, the descriptions of the
TARP funds and the auto bailout funds are factual. The
belief expressed that American cars companies will be
more beneficial when they adapt new technology is the
opinion of the actual author.
______________
Letters from Our Readers
America’s History Can Show Us the Way Forward
Richard Saunders, Attleboro, MA
There are some people who think the best way to fix
the economy is to sit back and let rich companies try to
fix it themselves. That’s clearly not the best way to
handle it.
For all the talk of how to fix things down in
Washington, no one pays attention to something that
could help us fix everything, and that’s our history.
Republicans don’t have a lot of history to look
back at. They sunk the country in the Depression,
and the Bush presidency sunk us in this recession.
Democrats on the other hand, have a lot of people to
look up to.
Look at FDR. When American was on its knees,
and Hitler was invading all of Europe, he asked for
government programs from Congress to help solve
the crisis. And it worked. President Obama today did
the same thing with the stimulus plan, but he hasn’t
gotten credit for saving America from a Depression.
Republicans say we don’t need government
programs or help. What would JFK say to that?
Government programs helped many poor African
Americans as a part of his proposed civil rights
legislation. What about Bill Clinton, who tried to fix
health care reform? All the money spent on health
care could have gone into jobs.
Americans view government action as a stigma. But
we shouldn’t. Democrats, including the President,
should stand up for what we believe, something
Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican president
said, “The legitimate object of government, is to do
for the people whatever they need to have done, but
which they can not do, at all, or can not do, so well,
for themselves.”
If we could have created jobs on our own, we
would have, and businesses would have too! Our
history says that we can use government programs,
sponsored by Democrats, to fix could have created
jobs on our own, we would have, and businesses
would have too! Our history says that we can use
government programs, sponsored by Democrats, to
fix the economy. We should be proud of that
record.
To submit a letter the Attleboro Democracy, write to the editor
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Fact Check
The Stimulus Created Jobs!
Did the stimulus create jobs? Yes. As Factcheck.org states: “the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released a report in
August that said the stimulus bill has "[l]owered the unemployment rate by between 0.7 percentage points and 1.8 percentage points"
an "[i]ncreased the number of people employed by between 1.4 million and 3.3 million." Simply put, more people would be
unemployed if not for the stimulus bill. The exact number of jobs created and saved is difficult to estimate, but nonpartisan economists
say there’s no doubt that the number is positive.” (http://www.factcheck.org/2010/09/did-the-stimulus-create-jobs/)
America’s Debt is Not New !
(Washington Post, July 18, 2011)
The national debt is not something that has started in the Obama administration. It is something that has built up over many
presidencies. Similarly, raising the debt ceiling is not new. It has been done by presidents of both parties- in fact, it was raised 17 times
during the Reagan administration.
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Attleboro Democracy, Fall 2011 12 | P a g e
Democrats of Attleboro Bulletin
Summer Picnic - Saturday, September 10th (rain date 17th) at Capron Park
This year is a municipal election year. The democratic platform promotes open elections for all eligible
participants. We encourage all Attleboro voters to register and to make their voices heard in the city.
The general city elections are Tuesday, November 8th
, 2011. The preliminary election for Ward 5 City
Council is Tuesday, September 20th
, 2011.
For more information on city elections, we encourage you to visit:
http://www.cityofattleboro.us/elections/ - the City of Attleboro Elections Department Webpage
www.attleborodemocrats.org – the Attleboro Democratic City Committee Website
If you have any questions or comments about the Attleboro Democracy Monthly, please contact us
Look out for our Winter Edition regarding Environment Issues.
Photo Credits:
Muhammad Ali vs Joe Frasier photo courtesy of BestSportsPhotos.com.
Massachusetts unemployment graph courtesy of Boston Globe.
Debt clock photo courtesy of Washington Post.
Debt ceiling chart courtesy of BBC News.
Attleboro photo courtesy of Amazon.com.
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