[lbo-talk] culture of poverty

[Wojtek Sokolowski]

Doug:
> Working for a right-wing think tank means you can say whatever the
> hell you feel like. Here's the BLS's data for 2002. They report the
> employment/population ratio; the "nonemployed" (sometimes called
> "inactive") share is 100-EPR.
> 
>                  EPR   inactive
> Australia       60.6    39.4
> Canada          62.4    37.6
> France          52.0    48.0
> Germany         52.2    47.8
> Italy           44.1    55.9
> Japan           57.5    42.5
> Netherlands     64.0    36.0
> Sweden          60.7    39.3
> UK              59.6    40.4
> U.S.            62.7    37.3

They also make another claim - that the employment participation rates
increase over time.  What they should have said is "under Clinton
administration, but plunged under Bush."  Below are historical data on
EPR from
http://data.bls.gov/servlet/SurveyOutputServlet?jrunsessionid=1088617117
514200759

Year Qtr1 Qtr2 Qtr3 Qtr4 Annual 
1994 62.2 62.4 62.5 63.0   
1995 63.1 62.9 62.8 62.8   
1996 62.8 63.1 63.3 63.5   
1997 63.5 63.8 63.9 64.0   
1998 64.0 64.1 64.0 64.2   
1999 64.3 64.2 64.2 64.4   
2000 64.6 64.5 64.2 64.3   
2001 64.3 63.8 63.5 63.0   
2002 62.8 62.8 62.8 62.5   
2003 62.4 62.3 62.1 62.3   
2004 62.2       

Wojtek