From Robert Reich:
The March employment numbers, out this morning, are bleak: 8.5 percent of Americans officially unemployed, 663,000 more jobs lost. But if you include people who are out of work and have given up trying to find a job, the real unemployment rate is 9 percent. And if you include people working part time who'd rather be working full time, it's now up to 15.6 percent. One in every six workers in America is now either unemployed or underemployed.
According to American conservatives, however, none of this counts. From Think Progress:
CALLER: I can really debate about how about that economic crises is because I look around and I don’t see people spending any less money than they have been.
[RNC chair Michael] STEELE: I’ve heard a number of people say that across the country. [LAUGHTER] The malls are just as packed on Saturday. [LAUGHTER]
CALLER: The malls are just as packed. … You still can’t get seat in a restaurant.
Meanwhile in Italy, the Guardian reported:
The Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, today sparked controversy when he said the 17,000 people made homeless by Monday’s earthquake should think of themselves as being on a “camping weekend”.
There are ever fewer reasons not to characterize right wing conservatism as a subclinical form of antisocial personality disorder characterized by a marked lack of empathy. Conservatism is a disease and a parasite on the body politic.
