<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1"> <title></title> </head> <body> So, does this necessarily mean that things are better in the U.S. What if the higher rate in the U.S. mean that fewer people can afford to retire? Joanna Wojtek Sokolowski wrote: <blockquote type="cite" cite="mid20060402205303.10582.qmail@web52302.mail.yahoo.com"> <pre wrap=""> --- Jerry Monaco <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:monacojerry@gmail.com"><monacojerry@gmail.com></a> wrote: </pre> <blockquote type="cite"> <pre wrap="">Isn't unemployment simply counted better in places like France and German than the U.S.? Wouldn't a more realistic accounting of unemployment and underemployment and misemployment in the U.S. reveal that a "flexible" labor force does not provide much more than the inflexible kind in Germany and France? </pre> </blockquote> <pre wrap=""> Maybe, maybe not. However, you can calculate labor force participation rate in relation to working age population (15+ years of age), which does not depend on counting the unemployed as distinguished from those not in the labor force. Based on the ILO data <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://laborsta.ilo.org/">http://laborsta.ilo.org/</a> the ratio of total employment to working age (15+) population in 2004 in France is 50.2%, in Germany it is 50.5%, and in the US it is 59.6%. These ratios clearly suggest that the US has a genuinely higher employment rate than either France or Germany and this is not an artifact of "creative accounting" for the unemployed. Wojtek __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://mail.yahoo.com">http://mail.yahoo.com</a> ___________________________________ <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk">http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk</a> </pre> </blockquote> </body> </html>