Unemployment Figures
I was reading the Marketplace.org website. It states the highest unemployment rate in the U.S. during the Great Depression was 25%, to be compared with the 7.2% today.
Is this a fair comparison?
Nowhere can I find how the 25% was determined. They didn't survey as they do today. The definition of being unemployed has changed. The only way to accurately compare the two numbers is use the same definition and as close to the same measures as possible. For all I know, the two rates may be the equivalent if the same definition were to be used.
That being said, I have a hard time trusting the words from a group of people who say to get out of the depression, we need to be spending more money, which is how we got into the state we are now. What we need is a different model of economics that doesn't rely on people borrowing large sums of money for making purchases.
Is this a fair comparison?
Nowhere can I find how the 25% was determined. They didn't survey as they do today. The definition of being unemployed has changed. The only way to accurately compare the two numbers is use the same definition and as close to the same measures as possible. For all I know, the two rates may be the equivalent if the same definition were to be used.
That being said, I have a hard time trusting the words from a group of people who say to get out of the depression, we need to be spending more money, which is how we got into the state we are now. What we need is a different model of economics that doesn't rely on people borrowing large sums of money for making purchases.