The final pre-election Jobs report - and a new spin?

[Fmr. Gov. NickG]

The strenght of the economy can't just be measured by unemployment.  A lot of people who are employed are underemployed...they are working below a decent living wage, have no job security, no pension, and no health benefits. 

Has anyone done an evaluation of the GINI coefficient of our current economy compared to four years ago?....that would definitely be interesting to see.

And then of course there is that old favorite of conservatives, the stock market.  How is that going for you guys?

[Fmr. Gov. NickG]

The underemployed thing is basically a lie.

The numbers also miss self-employed people.

The numbers have always missed self-employed people, right?  They also have always missed people who are unemployed but who have given up looking for work.  I'm not sure if either of these numbers is higher now than at other points in history.

Do you deny that the average wages and benefits among the middle and working classes have declined in the last four years?

[Fmr. Gov. NickG]

The government can't really do anything about private-sector unemployment.  But it can combat underemployment, which has been a bigger problem recently by doing, among other thing:

- Raising the minimum wage
- Increasing welfare and unemployment benefits
- Enacting universal healthcare

To do this, the government will need to raise taxes.  So yes, raising taxes can help the economy.

[Fmr. Gov. NickG]

The government can't really do anything about private-sector unemployment.  But it can combat underemployment, which has been a bigger problem recently by doing, among other thing:

- Raising the minimum wage
- Increasing welfare and unemployment benefits
- Enacting universal healthcare

To do this, the government will need to raise taxes.  So yes, raising taxes can help the economy.

What makes you think that any of these things will help the economy?

They may not increase the rate of total economic growth, but this is not the big problem with our economy right.  The biggest problem is that the direction of our economy is really punishing the poor and working class, and these measures would help the people who aren't benefiting from the current economy.   Our economy can't really be considered in good shape while so make people are struggling....right now inequality is a much bigger issue than growth.