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Unemployment Drops, Expectations Rise

Andrea Tantaros, a woman who writes for the New York Daily News website when she's not too busy trying to bring a human heartbeat to the cast of Red Eye, recently wrote a piece entitled “Time to get a job: Occupy Wall Street crowd is un-American in its aims and methods.” You can read the piece here, but, much like the title, the whole thing is comprised of sweeping generalizations that you've probably heard a thousand times before. A decent summary: Occupiers are lazy, un-American, and the rich are not. Occupiers should simply get a job and become the rich, because that's the American way. If you're anything like me, reading that piece will make you want to shake Andrea's face's hand with your fist.

On a similar note, Newt Gingrich recently told Occupiers to “go get a job right after you take a bath.” I won't say that I want to cause bodily harm to Mr. Gingrich because it will almost certainly land me in prison, but I draw your attention to his comment because he and Andrea have a similar idea here.

The above quotes are tremendously stupid, not because of their opposition to Occupy (I really can't bring myself to care about what someone else thinks about it, as assholish as that may sound), but rather because of this strange idea that you can just dip your bucket into a well and get a job. I'm not going to drag Tantaros over the coals here because she probably doesn't know any better. For all I know she's looking to be controversial because she gets paid by the page view (and if that is the case, a special note to Andrea: “you're welcome”). But Newt and people of his ilk are why I'm writing this.

But first, some good news: the unemployment rate has dropped to a two-and a half year low, falling from 9 percent to 8.6. It's not the best improvement, but it's better than no change and hopefully is a sign of things to come. A lot of factors went into this and many more could cut it at the knees, but already the number is being used as a tool by both ends of the political spectrum to prove themselves right and each other wrong. I'm sure you're surprised by this shocking development.

While pounding the campaign trail, Newt has gone on the record as saying that he would want to amend unemployment benefits to require receivers to take a drug test and have to sign up for training programs so they can better get a job. In essence, he's painting everyone who receives benefits with the same brush: lazy (and possibly on drugs, but I digress). Occasionally he'll throw in some line to backpedal over that somewhat, but his words and what appear to be his intentions disagree with him.