Yesterday there were news articles about how Verizon workers had skewed unemployment figures. "They were responsible." I hate it when those that pull the strings outright lie in order to further their goals. Too often now people are just not capable in dealing with simple mathematics and because a news article reinforces their beliefs, they repeat what they read EVEN WHEN IT'S WRONG.
What bothers me most is being censored so the lies perpetuate. Several times now this reply has been deleted from Yahoo news articles repeating the lies.
"Does anyone understand mathematics? Anyone at all? There are 350 MILLION people in America. Of those, over 75 MILLION are employable. That's 75,000,000. If there is 10% unemployment, that's 7,500,000 on Unemployment compensation. Lets say there are 6,000 workers on strike at Verizon. Using simple math, 6,000 of SEVEN-MILLION-FIVE-HUNDRED-THOUSAND, we find that Verizon workers make up LESS than .001% of those unemployed.
Please tell me how Verizon strikers managed to push up unemployment numbers. Seriously, you're being LIED to AGAIN."
Yes, fast with my own figures. There are only 318 million documented people, but also after some research, there were 138 million people with jobs the summer of 08. Almost twice as many as in my quote. In the first five months after the crash, almost NINE MILLION people lost their jobs. Employment is now bouncing around 128,000,000. Also there are 8,000 Verizon workers, but not all applied, not all are Union, and unemployed are much higher then the 7,500,000 in my example.
I'm bothered on so many levels about the fact Americans are no longer capable of simple math or unable to realize a million is a heck of a lot, a billion is far more, and a Trillion is unimaginable. We are so screwed.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
9 comments:
Mathematics aside, how do striking workers collect unemployment? My understanding is that you aren't eligible to collect if you choose to strike. Some unions have strike funds set aside....
What turns my cork is that Walker is stating all these gains in jobs he has brought to Wisconsin; however, the latest employment figures reflect that more jobs have been lost than gained. We are actually at a negative job growth. Do you like that euphemism?
Many of the jobs that were being claimed to have been added to Wisconsin payrolls were low paying, temporary jobs or from companies that moved over the border to claim tax exemption and facility upgrades at tax payer cost. Most of those workers still live in their respective state. 40,000 of those newly claimed jobs (don't quote me on that number) were Summerfest jobs.
Numbers like a 1/5th, 750Mil, 12oz, a 40 are numbers I can relate to.
And you are right KK, can’t collect unemployment if you are on strike collecting strike benefits. Or on strike without any bennies...
Huck, I'm confused. If the total number of employable people In America Is 75Mil, how can 138Mil be employed In "08" Also I am not familiar with what the Verizon people inflated the number to?
According to the US BoLS site, in 2008, 120,589,850 are employed out of an estimated 330,000,000 citizens. Statistics for 2009 are not yet complete. However, unemployment increased from 4.2%, in '07' to 9.8% as of sept, 2009.
Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_people_are_employed_in_the_United_States#ixzz1W9oeMewT
This should confuse you even more. I'm lost.
Toad, I think Huck was originally making some estimates that turned out to be a little bit off. This is a common practice (sometimes called a Fermi Problem) where the goal is not to get the exact answer, but merely to see if claims are plausible. Huck's numbers succeeded on that count.
kk, reading Huck's post, I don't see where he claims the workers are collecting unemployment, he is talking about how they might influence unemployment figures. The unemployment rate is calculated by phone surveys and they are only checking if you are unemployed. Not all unemployed can collect unemployment insurance (this includes people such as those on strike, those who resigned from their jobs or those who were fired with cause).
Thanks, hale. Going back and re-reading it, I do see it is not based on unemployment compensation figures. I read too quickly and got my undies in a bundle. Good thing you're around to, um... resolve that tangle... lol
I believe that both the government and the press use numbers to misinform and influence others' thinking much more than they do to inform. After they lie so much, it is difficult to believe that they are ever telling the truth.
Reminds me of Senator Kyl on the Senate floor stating that Planned Parenthood was responsible for 97% of the abortions in America. It's actually 3%.
When the error was brought to his attention his office replied that it wasn't meant to be a factual statement. WTH.
Hale, I get It. Being from a Materials Control background, I tend to be a bit puzzled by numbers sometimes. Like the employment numbers we hear every week/month. NO WAY are they even close to accurate. An telephone polls. I have not been called about a poll In MANY years. I think a lot of this information can be put In the story about "Smelly Poop"
Post a Comment