( We go into these issues deeper at Ray Tapajna Chronicles online since 1998 at http://tapsearch.com/tapartnews/   and http://tapsearch.com/flatworld/   with links to other related sites for more than ten years.  These sites still relate to our present time as if they were written yesterday. )
The term Free Trade is a flagrant misuse of what trade is really all about.  Trade is about trading goods and services and not moving production from place to place for the sake of cheaper labor costs. If this is trade than you can relate it to the slave trade where human beings were traded as if they were commodities. The news channels never make this vital distinction when they use the term.

The unemployment reporting is also a flagrant misrepresentation of employment. Somewhere along the line, the definitions for employment changed and do not compare with past reporting from the 1940s through the 1970s when primarily, only full time jobs with benefits were counted.  The term underemployment came later and it was used for awhile as an indication of workers not being able to find full time work or living wage jobs.

During the Clinton era, even workers making only a $100 a month were reported as employed and the term underemployment lost its meaning.  Also somewhere along the line, the primary collection of data was a phone polling process where only a few thousands homes were called. If the person responding to the call said they did not look for a job in the previous month, they were considered employed.  If an unemployed person went back home to the family farm to live and help out on the farm while looking for a job, they were considered employed.

As to how many workers are missing in action from any kind of reporting is an unknown but we know there must be millions. A few years ago, the Bureau of Unemployment finally admitted there were more than 4 million workers who gave up looking for work, but still they were not counted as unemployed. We all should know just my observing our surroundings, there are many more than 4 million  workers who have lost hope. The most significant statistics that proves this is the number of workers who do not qualify for unemployment insurance.

Only about 38 percent of all workers in the USA qualify for unemployment insurance. This means that 62 percent are living in limbo in some no man land of statistics.

From time to time there are debates in Congress about extending unemployment payments whose benefits have run out, but nothing is never mentioned about the workers who never were able to qualify for the insurance because they did not make enough money at one job or did not work long enough at any job to qualify.  We all know an underground labor market is growing too but many of these workers still would not qualify for unemployment insurance. What is important is the fact that the major news channels and our political leaders never talk about those who do not qualify. These workers remain in the lost land of  statistics.

Most likely there are more  unemployed workers today than there was during the Great Depression. The only difference is that we now have social security and private and public support for many in need.  And many who work at places like Walmart and in fast foods, require government help in order to survive.  We have taken tariffs off goods and services and put them on workers. Sadly many families who have someone working most of the time are even homeless.

Free Traders's biggest lie is about  tariffs and protectionism causing the Great Depression.

Click here for more Globalization, Free Trade

and Workers Dignity articles by Ray Tapajna

http://static.grazr.com/gzpanel.html?view=o&file=http://.rss

Powered By broadQAst.com

Click here to go to Arkline Free Online at http://tapsearch.com for many total free web services, web pages/business directory, submitters, promoters, free products, downloads, anti virus scans, firewalls,anti -spyware , classifieds online and offline and much much more - courtesy of Tapart News and Arkline Collectible Topical and Sports art.

The Flat World of Thomas Friedman challenged at

http://tapsearch.com/flatworld/ See Friedman Flatteners Fables

rss feed for arklineart fotopages widget - pass it on.