I don't have links at hand to support the fact the greatets increase in employment in the US are government jobs but it is common knowledge. The greatest increase in private sector jobs are in the service industry like Wal Mart etc. which aren't union jobs and pay usually 50% less than most of the jobs which have been outsourced.

If I remember correctly, he/she was right through much of the cycle, but I think the private sector has now surpassed the public sector.  The growth in government spending has slowed quite a bit and will likely continue to slow, given the partisan divide between Congress and the White House.  That's not incredibly odd, though.  If a governments opts for fiscal policy in pursuit of stabilization, then it would make sense to see faster growth in the public sector -- the logic, of course, being partly that people take employment in the public sector to stay afloat during downturns, and leave because of higher pay elsewhere or budget cuts, once recovery sets in.

The bit on the job growth with companies like Wal-Mart is (again, if I remember correctly) rubbish, though.  Most jobs created in the Dot-Com Boom were quite high-paying (middle- to upper-middle-class), and, while a significant number of jobs were lost when the bust arrived, the losses were not terribly great.  (The unemployment rate never went above 6%.  That's not bad at all, as recessions go.)

As I understand, a large chunk of job growth these days is coming in health care, education, and financial services -- again, jobs that tend to pay decent salaries.  Teachers typically start in the range of $30-50k, depending on the state.  Health care, obviously, contains a wide variety of jobs, ranging from the lower-middle- to the upper-class in salary.  And financial services tend to start in a similar range to teachers, but they, obviously, have a lot more growth potential.

All three of those areas are facing labor shortages, too, and pay, last I checked, was rising at very strong rates.

Wal-Mart will open a store here and there, but there's simply not much room left before running into overproduction.

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.

Very much so.

The main task of Codice, he says, is to educate French citizens about the way the economy works so they are better informed and less hostile.

The council plans a slick new website, pamphlets and campaigns in universities and schools.

Training journalists, says Fauconnier, is vital because economic stories are often covered in a one-sided way on French TV.

"When a factory closes or sheds jobs, for example, there are lots of emotional interviews with angry workers, but rarely any analysis of the reasons behind the company's decision."

I wonder who's funding them? Somehow I don't think they're doing it out of the kindness of their hearts and a need to re-educate errant journalists.

If Katrina, Bush, America Invading Iraq etc. hasn't 'disabused people of the notion that America is paradise'; nothing I say will have a greater impact.

I may point out criticism of the US but it is a place where people can still come to and pursue their lives relatively freely when compared to other countries. The only class system in America is built on how much money you have which can make it possible for anyone to join as opposed to countries like the UK and France whose class systems are based on priviledge and which family you are part of.

Here is a link to a column from a year ago in The Observer which should shed some light on the health of the American economy and should warn anybody in France off of Sarko if they dont want to be avbused like many Americans. The most interesting statistic I have heard recently is the top 300,000 Americans earn more income than the bottom 150,000,000 Americans. Mindboggling and this is what Sarko wants to bring to France.The link to the column is:
 http://observer.guardian.co.uk/columnists/story/0,,1792399,00.html

 

You mean like this?

But isn't the UK a better example of what's in store for France if they go the Sarko route? I mean, it would take a long time for France to have 10 million* people living (somehow) without healthcare, almost half a million* people in prison, and thousands* of French troops killed and maimed in Muslim civil wars. Not to mention not having ANY public transportation for 90% of the country.

Besides, for all our faults, we DO have a viable opposition party and a wealth of great possibilities to take over the country in 2008.

* I'm adjusting these figures to reflect that France has about 1/5 the population of the U.S.

A nice piece on how great unemployment should be, if our society was a bit smarter about it (in French)

Via Le Monolecte, one of the better French blog on the left.

Today's post about Harz 4 forced labor was great, btw.

Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères