>Unemployment is actually higher here than official statistics reflect since
>the prison population isn't counted, nor are people who have given up
>looking for work, etc.
Yeah, but even using harmonized statistical techniques, U.S. unemployment rates are well below Europe's. U.S. poverty rates are well above, though.
If you counted the imprisoned as unemployed, it would have raised the U.S. unemployment rate from 4.3% in December 1998 to about 5.6%. The black male rate would have gone from 6.7% to 16.7%.
Doug