The Lesson of Real Unemployment
The problem with unemployment statistics is that you can include or exclude as many variables as you want to portray the current undercurrents of the economy however you'd like. Most optimists throw out the normal unemployment level, which as of today is over 10% for the first time since I've been alive. What I believe to be the proper, or rather more accurate portrayal of unemployment is U6 Unemployment.
Unemployment data is split up into several categories as laid out in the following manner:
- U1: Percentage of labor force unemployed 15 weeks or longer.
- U2: Percentage of labor force who lost jobs or completed temporary work.
- U3: Official unemployment rate per ILO definition.
- U4: U3 + "discouraged workers", or those who have stopped looking for work because current economic conditions make them believe that no work is available for them.
- U5: U4 + other "marginally attached workers", or "loosely attached workers", or those who "would like" and are able to work, but have not looked for work recently.
- U6: U5 + Part time workers who want to work full time, but cannot due to economic reasons.
Thus the most accurate number we can use that portrays the total effect of the economy on unemployment including limited work availability, part-time jobs, discouraged workers, and a wide variety of other factors is the U6 number.
Keeping in mind the U1 number of approximately 10.1%, the current number for U6 is 17.5%. That means of the recognized "unemployed" people in America in that 10.1% number, there is an additional large population who are underemployed or have given up on finding a job.
To represent the data here is a graph of unemployment with "recessions" in grey. Note that this is somewhat old data and the far right of the graph should now be in the 10% range, approximately equal to the early 1980's recession.
Now what lesson can we take away from this? The rose glasses most Americans have on is only seeing the 10.1% number of normal unemployment. It is essential that we consider the U6 unemployment data since it is far wider in scope and aides in the understanding of true employment levels in this country.
Badges
I've never really understood the purpose of website badges. I know they were popular back in the days of Geocities (RIP), but it seems quite useless these days. This must be one of those retro things that is coming back because of Geocities nostalgia because they serve no actual purpose.
Websites such as twitter, Facebook, UpDown, and various others allow you to create a "badge" containing limited profile information that you can post on other websites. The problem being who has a personal website that they're posting their 10-15 badges from all the social networking sites they're members of?
Web badges originally came about to serve a purpose similar to a blogroll. People would post small advertisements for other websites or blogs on their front page somewhere to help draw people to the sites. By having a flashy little picture they could accomplish free advertising. It became a you rub my back I'll rub yours. If you put my little image on your website, I'll put yours on mine. This was also back in the dark ages of webrings and other assorted wizardry.
Now however it doesn't seem to matter. If I want to connect with you on Facebook I'm not going to see your badge and suddenly be thrilled to join and find you. If I want to be your friend I can easily find you through their search engine, and chances are that if I'm browsing your personal website with your collection of badges I'm already your facebook friend.
As an advertisement for the website as a whole it fails. Facebook doesn't need additional advertisement through badges. Everybody who is anybody already knows about the website and how to join, and seeing a badge on somebody's blog or personal website isn't going to make them want to join.
I guess my confusion comes into what is the purpose? Well I have served that gaping hole by creating a badges page on my website and putting badges up from social networking sites I belong to.
Aquarium Page Added
I've added an aquarium page to the website to track by new 10g setup. I'm going to be combining this page and blog updates as a personal aquarium journal. This way I can track the growth of my plants, fish, and other assorted creatures in the tank.
The aquarium is a 10g Aquatic Edge setup that I've been slowly tweaking as I go. I have Flourite Black Sand substrate, a small piece of driftwood, and a large rock from Chinatown in terms of decoration. For my flora I have a combination of plants that are listed on the aquarium page that I've recently added. I'm planning on dosing the tank with Flourish and Flourish Excel for plant nutrition. Right now in terms of fish I have five Glowlight Tetras just for the sake of cycling the tank and providing some entertainment. I hope none die but if they do I can replace them with more attractive and entertaining fish once the tank is cycled.
Once the tank is cycled I intend on putting either Neolamprologus Multifasciatus or German Blue Rams (Mikrogeophagus ramirezi) in the tank. They require different water qualities and I'm not quite sure which direction I would like to go yet.
I'll be taking pictures and uploading them to the blog, picture album, and aquarium page so if you want to follow the tank development feel free. Email me if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions.