If our economy continues to tank, I'll know one reason why.

I'm semi-retired, and I have been to Costco twice this week. Both days around 10:00 a.m.. I figured if I went at that time, it would be a little less crowded, but boy was I wrong! It was no different than mid-day Saturday - it was a madhouse. If I stopped to look at something or put something in my buggy, I'd almost get run over, no matter where I was in the store. A back-up would immediately form behind me, as people frantically tried to get around me. Insanity. Point is, nobody seems to be working - if all of these people have jobs, what are they doing at Costco buying eyeglasses, laundry detergent, and flat screen TVs in the middle of the week? We don't seem to be a very productive workforce. I can only speculate that we are fat and lazy and benefitting from decades of economic growth and expansion.

tabbyplague®

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The unemployment rate is a BS metric because it essentially

Jun 15, 2022, 4:01 PM

ignores all the folks of working age that don't have a job and aren't even looking for a job. The current US labor participation rate is 62.3%. When over 1/3 of working age adults (~100 million people) aren't participating in the work force with a significant portion of those folks on some kind of Government handout - you get a packed Costco during normal weekday "working hours".

What's even worse is that these same folks don't generate any job related tax revenue to the State or Federal Government and in many cases don't pay any Federal taxes at all. If we don't start to reverse the over 25 year downward trend in labor participation we will eventually get to the point where there aren't enough producers to cover the expenses of the takers.

At some point the USA has got to wake up to the reality we have a lot of able bodied dead weight in this country and the best way to encourage them to get into the workforce is to cut them off from the Government funded trough. I find it laughable when the talking eggheads on TV try to justify illegal immigration or our declining labor participation rates by saying that there are just some jobs people in the US won't do. I think these eggheads would be amazed at what jobs able bodied US citizens will do if given the choice between either working or going hungry...