State of the Nation

29% of Americans say the country is headed in the right direction while 65% say it is on the wrong track. (NBC/WSJ, 10/13)

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The official BLS seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for September 2016 is 5.0%

If one takes into account the total number of unemployed + those marginally attached to the labor force + those working part-time who want full-time work, the current rate is 9.7%. [BLS data is based on those 16 years of age and older.]

In the fourth week of October, Gallup found an unadjusted unemployment rate of 5.1%. It also found an under-employment rate of 12.9% (unemployed + those working part-time but wanting full-time). [This is based on those 18 years of age and older.]

Employment is rising faster in occupations requiring higher levels of preparation. [Pew Research, 10/6]

Alan Krueger, a Princeton professor and former chairman of Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, has looked at data prepared by Nicholas Eberstadt, a demographer at the American Enterprise Institute, and arrived at the conclusion that large numbers of people in the prime of life are out of the work force because they are having health problems. Some are literally in considerable physical pain.

Fully 6 percent of American men between the ages of 25-54 and 5.8 percent of prime-age women say they can’t work because of health issues. This is a substantial increase since 1968. In the case of women it’s an increase from 1.8% and in the case of men, an increase from 1.6%. [WP, 10/13]

Here is data provided by Krueger about men who are not in the labor force as compared to unemployed men and working men.

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60% of Americans now think that marijuana should be made legal. This is up from 31% in 2000. Not surprisingly, 77% of those 18-34 years of age support legalization while only 45% of those over the age of 65 share that view. 70% of Independents, 67% of Democrats and 42% of Republicans support legalization. [Gallup, 10/19]

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The four-year high school graduation rate in the United States in the 2014-15 school year was 83.2%, up from 79% in the 2010-11 year. [The Huffington Post]

The expected value of the bottled water market by the year 2020 is $280 billion, bringing a new meaning to the phrase “money for nothing”. [The Guardian]

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74% of likely voters believe that a system should be set up to allow illegal immigrants who are currently working in the United States, to become legal. [Fox, 10/17]

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Republicans and Democrats have differing views about various major institutions and whether they have a positive or negative impact on how things are going in this country.

A majority of Republicans and Democrats who stated opinions on this question agree that churches and religious organizations have a positive impact and majorities of each political group say that large corporations, banks and financial institutions and the national news media have a negative impact on the way things are going.

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49 percent of new parents in a recent survey said they had taken a job for less money because their new employer offered better benefits for families. [Quartz] [Fivethirtyeight]

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Who uses dating apps? No surprise, younger voters are the largest users of online dating apps like Tinder. Broken down by age:

27% of users are age 18-24
22% of users are 25-34
21% of users are 35-44
13% of users are 45-54
12% of users are 55-64
3% of users are 65 or older

[Pew Research Center/WSJ, 10/13]

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“The Rules” are not “All the Rules”

We live in a world in which most everything we do is controlled by “formal” rules of one kind or another. Whatever our endeavor, significant or insignificant, large or small, complicated or easy, we know or learn the “formal” rules and we proceed. If we follow the “formal” rules we can have a reasonable expectation that what we do is permissible.

But now, knowing the “formal” rules and following them may not be good enough.

There is a new rule. It is called “perception”.

Given the nature of communication today, in which anyone who has a beef can tell the “world”, in addition to whether something is legal and ethical, we must now consider how the activity looks.

For example, if a person is about to be selected to become part of the board of a charitable organization he or she must meet certain criteria, i.e. willingness to attend X number of meetings a year, raise a certain amount of money each year, etc. But if the person’s other activities are controversial, the charitable organization may decide that it does not want to take on the possible impact of the person’s reputation on their organization.

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Death with Dignity

The following are excerpts from an Op-Ed by Bishop Desmond Tutu published in the Washington Post.

“Throughout my life, I have been fortunate to have spent my time working for dignity for the living. I have campaigned passionately for people in my country and the world over to have their God-given rights.

“Now, as I turn 85 Friday, with my life closer to its end than its beginning, I wish to help give people dignity in dying. Just as I have argued firmly for compassion and fairness in life, I believe that terminally ill people should be treated with the same compassion and fairness when it comes to their deaths…

“…In refusing dying people the right to die with dignity, we fail to demonstrate the compassion that lies at the heart of Christian values. I pray that politicians, lawmakers and religious leaders have the courage to support the choices terminally ill citizens make in departing Mother Earth. The time to act is now.”

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