Housing Problem

As of May possibly 2008, the national unemployment rate was listed at 5.5%. Why is that misleading? Chiefly since that figure does not capture so-called "discouraged" workers whose unemployment rewards have run their course and have been unable to discover a job. In other words, the figure cited around does not include thousands, maybe millions, of persons who want work but who have dropped off the statistical radar of measurement. Now if the thinking of economists is that an unemployment rate of 5.5% or more is bad for the economy and if the 5.5% doesn't reflect the higher number of would-be workers whose counting would enhance that rate, then it follows logically that the economy is in far more trouble than even the official figure indicates. Additional indicators of a weakened economy are figures for inflation and economic growth overall.

Currently, the forecast for U.S. GDP growth is 0.96%, while inflation is calculated to be at 4.08% (FFC 2008). Combine that using a 5.5% rate of unemployment, and particular truisms of classical economics come into play. In an economy where there's full employment, the GDP, that's the largest amount of total output a nation can create without inflation, is determined by the size on the labor force and its productivity, or output per person-hour. This is in which federal government expenditure in "make-work" employment programs might be useful. In the 1930s that took the form of work during the Works Progress Administration as well as the Civilian Conservation Corps, the former building infrastructure for the municipal commons (e.g., sidewalks, schools, bridges) and also the latter preserving infrastructure for the rural commons (e.g., forest preservation, tree planting, flood controls) (Leuchtenburg 124ff).

The benefits of the WPA and CCC had been felt for numerous years, though rewards can deteriorate in value. Anyone who has experienced the feeling of potholes and shabby schools on one hand or the vision of clear-cut tree stands on the other might recognize the need and opportunity to reinvigorate the national infrastructure. Sadly, however, neither federal government entities nor private-sector contractors of these days appear willing to conceptualize the benefits of with a willing and previously unemployed workforce to benefit all to your foreseeable future.

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