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I commonly see that discussions of “unemployment rate” don’t account for the ways a person can be excluded from the labor market [1]. To achieve middle-class with a family detached home mortgage, annual vacation, etc., dual-earner is nearly mandatory. Those that “give up” and live in their parent’s basement playing video games are not counted as unemployed.

[1] https://www.bls.gov/cps/cps_htgm.htm#nilf





It's upsetting that it's commonly pushed that something as complex as "the economy" could ever be summerized or understood through a single, uncontextualized number. E.g. GDP, jobs reports, SP500 or unemployment rate.

Even just breaking down unemployment rate by race starts illuminated a better understanding of our current conditions. Labor participation sees at least some discussion in the main stream but trying to distill everything into a 5 second headline is hurdling us to doom.




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