>Charles: When you say "no idea" , not even more or less than a million ?
>2 million ? Wouldn't a million raise the unemployment rate by about 1% ?
>Doesn't seem logical to then just count it as zero homeless. What is the
>range of among those who do estimate it ?
>
>I'll see if I can find out what some advocates for the homeless think.
The unemployment rate isn't really intended as a measure of human deprivation; it's intended as a measure of labor market tightness, which is what the employing class cares about. The tighter the labor market, the stronger the upward pressure on wages. Leaving aside the employed homeless, most people living on the street aren't "attached" to the labor market, as they say, so they don't enter into the wage formation process. If you're looking for measures of deprivation, the income and poverty statistics are much better than the employment figures. People can be employed and still be poor. Lots of the customers at soup kitchens across this lovely country are employed.
Doug