The blue line represents all of the unemployed.
Shadow Government Statistics (Full size)
Unemployment statistics were conveniently adjusted since the 1960's when those seeking a job for more than a year were simply removed from the jobless figures. There were still unemployed but their inconvenience to the propagandists was eliminated by "disappearing" them into the background of a shadow economy.
Kevin Phillips summed it up succinctly when he said:
"If Washington's harping on weapons of mass destruction was essential to buoy public support for the invasion of Iraq, the use of deceptive statistics has played its own vital role in convincing many Americans that the U.S. economy is stronger, fairer, more productive, more dominant, and richer with opportunity than it actually is." Numbers Racket: Why the economy is worse than we know. Harpers, May 2008.
How can we make rational judgments without a real picture of the world around us?
How can we judge leaders if they don't have to answer for the reality that they create?
It's time to take care of unfinished business. As that process goes forward, whatever your priorities might be, it is important to see the pervasiveness and absolute necessity of the "official" lies for the liars and those they serve.
We need to seize the opportunity that we have as citizens to push through these fictions and create our own reality as we address the business left unfinished by those who promised us so much and delivered nothing but degradation and hardship.
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