One of the glaring inaccuracies in the most vitriolic letter I have seen in your paper needs rebuttal. Unemployment is not “quite low by any standards.”
The U.S. Misery Index was initiated by economist Arthur Okun, an adviser to President Lyndon Johnson, in the 1960”s. It is simply the unemployment rate added to the inflation rate. It is assumed that both a higher rate of unemployment and a worsening of inflation will create economic and social costs for a country.
A combination of rising inflation and larger percentage of people of out of work implies a deterioration in economic performance and a rise in the misery index. The index has been tracked since 1948. The figures are drawn from U. S. government sources.
At the end of this past July, the Misery Index stood at 11.3 (unemployment 5.7, inflation 5.6). The average during Clinton”s administration was 7.8.
Admittedly, the highest on record fell during the Carter presidency, a stunning 16.27 (which contributed immeasurably to Reagan”s “landslide”). The other two Misery Indices that are higher than today”s belonged to Ford (15.93) and Reagan (12.19). In descending order following G.W. came Geo. H. W. Bush (10.68) and Nixon (9.98). All Republicans.
Harry Truman got a creditable 7.87, Kennedy 7.27, and Johnson 6.78. All of which makes me think the Democrats may have a strong argument, even though the gold star goes to a sterling Republican, good old Ike Eisenhower at 6.26.
There are, of course, other factors that need to be considered, not the least of which is that the methods of calculating both unemployment and inflation have been recently “adjusted” to reflect a stronger economy; otherwise recent figures might be higher.
It is true that “many people live at home with no real job or life of their own,” largely because the jobs they had (and probably did quite well) have disappeared and there are now no jobs available to them. And, for the record, many middle-class people are now paying less taxes –not because of tax cuts, but because they are unemployed!
Real facts are indeed available if one chooses to seek them out. I hope all of your readers will do so before they write letters with baseless charges.
Nina Bouska
Hidden Valley Lake
