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What do the unemployment numbers look like if you don't count government jobs?

The Government does not produce anythingg and therefore cannot generate wealth. This means that Government jobs add to the deficit. They do not generate revenue because even though that worker pays taxes, the country has to go into debt to cover their payroll. Barack Obama has been trying to make his administration look better, by creating government jobs. What is the current unemployent if you count private industry jobs only?

Public Comments

1. Bad.
2. What u talking about? Obama made the most sweeping economic recovery plan in history! Remember? Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qE4roT07fE&NR=
3. So, in your world view: Building Roads = Not producing anything Shipping things over those roads = producing things Making sure fish can live in water = not producing anything Gathering fish from that water in order to sell them = producing something Do I have that about right?
4. The problem with unemployment is that the longer you pay people to sit at home on their assssses the easier it is for them to do so and not even want to work anymore. Throw in food stamps and medicaid and voile you have a new economic generation of lazy asssed people with the govt' ENABLING them. Stop this damn payout and you will find unemployment rates dropping drastically because people will then take any job they can get and not sit and wait on something worthy of their effort.
5. I was just visiting a small city in New Mexico where a city official told me that 80% of employment in the city was state-sponsored. I understand why the majority of its citizens are of the Democratic party.
6. (click). I agree about the lack of productivity part. I thought the gov was shedding public jobs more these past few months though.. If we don't count them, I think that would make the figures go up..
7. Okay, I am going to tell you that you are wrong; the last time I checked, working for the government does not exempt them from paying income tax. And you can verify this, but more private sector jobs were created under this administration than the last. Even Governor Perry padded his employment figures to include government workers. My humble opinion, a job is a job.
8. Very good question. The majority of "Stimulus" went to help Bankers,Government workers, Unions(all contracts had to be union), and some other special interests. These are all relatively high paying jobs and paid for with our taxes. If the same amount of money went to lower income jobs it would have helped many more people and helped small businesses stay in business. I am sick of the corruption and favoritism in government wasting our hard-earned tax dollars.
9. Here's an economics lesson for the less willing to think... Jobs are Jobs.. forget the false premise of the question... lets deal in fundamentals. If you are a government worker regardless of where you live.. OR WHAT YOU DO you are spending that paycheck locally. This is the basis of Economics.. where is the money ending up? Money grows the economy from the bottom up. If supply side trickle down worked we wouldn't be in this situation. Wages for the middle and down have stagnated and moved backwards.. while at the upper end the wealth has grown exponentially over the last 30 years.. When you steal from the working class you suck the air out of the street level money pool.. Tax breaks for corporations and individuals in the way of estate taxes, Income, subsides and loopholes in the code SERVE TO REMOVE LIQUIDITY that's why there's 3 trillion offshore. Further these same companies slashed 2.9 million jobs between 2001 and 2009 while adding nearly 3million abroad. And that's only a small handful of corporations. The fact is in the 80's free trade and trickle down became the buzz words, I remember well. Clinton gets saddled with NAFTA and he deserves much of that blame, but it began with Nixon, was picked up by Reagan and designed with Papa Bush. Obama has been right there with all of this. That's why its such a complete joke when I hear you people accusing him of rabid "Marxism" lol.. His watered down jobs bill is a Republican dream as much of it is based off of old Rep ideals.. the only reason its getting panned is because the Right wing noise machine needs that fodder to keep the angst going until November next year.. But the reality is, if we had an FDR in the WH we'd get back to common sense and reinvest in our people.. instead, we're handing it all to an ever shrinking number of Corporatist's.
10. If not for government nobody would produce anything as there would be no rules or law or public infrastructure. Give it a think. Except for unpaved trails impassible in heavy weather there would be little commerce. Air traffic wouldn't exist. Cities would be without clean water and sewers. There would be no courts or police. I could type all day and never come to the end of ALL the services that make life in a first world country possible. Without government we'd be living in the same conditions as the tribal areas of Afghanistan. While government is a cost to business there would be nothing but local trade and warlords instead of a real country. This 'question' is the result of an army of right wing radio dummies and their stupid anti-government propaganda. The irony of course is that the right wing reactionaries want to BE the government. The other irony is that so many working class people support the GOP/Teabag/Fox 'News'/Jesus freak party who in turn pimp for a handful of trans national corporations that wouldn't even exist EXCEPT for government. Should these weasels take over 'our' government corporate interests would be the ONLY interests as these bums would essentially BE the government. The short answer to this question is: If there were no 'government jobs' there wouldn't be much employment above the subsistence level and not much civilization either. Also how does hiring private contractors to repair infrastructure translate into 'creating government jobs'? Dumb and dumber!