[lbo-talk] The Myth of Japan?s Failure - NYTimes.com

[// ravi]

On Jan 10, 2012, at 11:50 AM, shag carpet bomb wrote (quoting Doug?):
> 
> <> What happened in 1994 was that a question was added to the survey
> <> asking discouraged workers if they'd looked for a job at any time in
> <> the past year. That strikes me as not unreasonable. If you're just
> <> sitting around for months on end saying, "Shit, sure would like a
> <> job," without actually trying to find one, should you really be
> <> counted as "discouraged"?

I don’t see the reasoning. Who can afford to just sit around for months on end saying “Shit, sure would like a job”? If a person just gave up on looking for a job, it is exactly because they were “discouraged” by the job market, I would think?

Now, if they were saying “Shit, this job hunting is boring. I am going to life off my parents/inheritance/the-generous-teat-of-the-gummint”, then I can see the point.

	—ravi