= new reply since forum marked as read
Not concerned, are you?
DISASTER.
This is not just a political debate; there are millions upon millions of people out there who simply can't find any work or full-time work sufficient to live.
That graph is a political graph, but there are all these other graphs published by the government that show what is actually happening, such as:
It is not as if Democrats or liberals can afford to ignore this data. Income inequality is mostly growing because we just don't have jobs for people - that's the primary method by which individuals raise incomes and net wealth. The US did not suddenly turn into a nation of lazy slackers. If residents could find jobs they wouldn't be on food stamps. If we seriously want to do anything about our problems, we have to grapple with these stats. We have to talk about them. We have to propose plans to deal with them.
Everyone who has looked for work fruitlessly knows the truth in their bones - this is a very bad employment market and we have not yet achieved escape velocity to generate a consistent cycle of improvement. The Fed keeps stating this. The official stats bear the Fed out. And most importantly, every family with members out looking for work knows about the reality.
We cannot let ourselves be trapped into a spin cycle that betrays the fundamental interests of the American population. We have to tell the truth because otherwise we will not be a political party worth the nation's votes.
Our current administration did not create this problem, but if the current administration refuses to admit that this problem exists, or tries to ignore this problem in the current election cycle, the Democratic party will be hugely weakened.
But unfortunately there are a bunch of political spinsters who make a living off making a case. The problem is that many of them are quite disconnected from reality, and so they really believe that the situation has improved far more than it has.
So what do we get out of that? Unrealistic DC proposals to cut needed welfare schemes such as unemployment and food stamps and rent subsidies and heat subsidies (no, I DON'T think "welfare" is a dirty word) because we are implicitly contributing to the right's meme of lazy slacker syndrome.
This is very injurious to the collective welfare. It distorts public policy. It distorts public perceptions. And in the long run, it makes the people lose confidence in their government.
I'm going to repost one graph and a couple more breaking down employment levels by age. No one should be talking about an improving situation, because the situation is not improving. This is an absolute LEVEL (number of people working) for the age ranges listed. This is your core employment. This level is not population adjusted. This graph tells a tragic tale and explains why we are seeing the social needs we are seeing:
Yeah, verily, for this is like unto it:
These two levels are back to 1990s levels. That means although this group of the population has not dropped, many of these people aren't working any more. They haven't retired. Many of the younger ones are in school, where they are racking up huge student loans, because they can't get jobs. However the 35-44 ages are getting hit the worst.
Bob, the terrifying reality is that most of the apparent improvement in jobs comes from those who are drawing SS and still working (to make a living):
Where do you see any real improvement in this data? There's a slight uptick at the end of the lower age ranges that provides a hint that we may be on the right path, but that's about it. In fact, throughout the course of this "recovery" these most fundamental measures of employment strength have trended down so far. This explains EVERYTHING about what we are experiencing in the country.
Certainly they can't have disappeared out of a DU discussion again? 
it's hard to imagine, that prior to facebook, the only thing available to people was MySpace
and that prior to yahoo and google, people had to use alta vista or lycos!
imagine how different that must have been, having to survive on only those sites created by citizens!
there's no way that other citizens would have come up with a similar, more popular version!
that kind of innovation can only come from immigrants!
and my father worked in the field since 1955 as a COBOL programmer. Seems what I wrote just blew right over your head. But I suppose when one has a weak argument in the first place, it's not surprising. 
"Crowing"? Really? 
And after doing so ... it was clear to me that the author has a very specific agenda.
Now, if I had posted the OP, thus drawing attention to the article, I would feel a special need to not only post the article, but provide my detailed commentary on it, pro or con. You did not do so.
I did not post the OP, I simply read it. And when I read the article, and then others by this same author, I found his anti-immigrant agenda clearly apparent. And I said so. I do not feel any obligation beyond that. Just as you felt no obligation to provide your own assessment in the original OP.
Others should feel free to read the article posted, and others by the same author, as they see fit.
And if you think he makes critical points in this article, or in the others, you should fell free to post those. After all, you posted the OP, and yet included no analysis of your own.
And yet oddly you would demand that I provide a deeper analysis of this and the other articles from the same author.
Welcome to party politics. The problem is, some of the "personalities" you've chosen to drag into a forum that supports "Democrats". You do know that this is a message board, and not the Democratic Party, right?
I'm a Democrat, through & through, and make no apologies for it. If you're not into "labels", then I have a couple of anti-dem (supposedly liberal) site suggestions you might wanna check out. 
"how would you know?"
...you've only been here a month. I'll find the links.
you said
"...I don't buy into that spin. It reeks of an excuse to push racists."
