Do you think the president should be blamed when the economy goes badly?
Yesterday, I read an article by VOA which was in my textbook and it said about the unemployment rate of the states.
According to the article, the unemployment rate has been improved after Obama took office although it is still high enough to leave more than 10 million people unemployed.
After reading, my teacher and I discussed about the unemployment situation in my country. As I googled it in advance, I told him the unemployment percentage in my country- which is around 4%. He thought it was comparably low and we weren’t facing severe problems regarding the matter. But I don’t think we can say the situation is so much better compare to the states. We are suffering from the worst situation of all times ever. I think we should consider the hidden unemployment numbers as well in order to see the matter accurately. Hidden unemployment refers to the population that is not reflected in official unemployment statistics- for example: working-age students who left school and are not seeking immediate jobs but are preparing for professional programs for potential jobs. If we include those numbers, the percentage goes up above 10% which is more than the triple from the original rate.
Then we discussed if the president should be blamed when the economy goes badly. We usually tend to give presidents too much blame when the economy goes badly and too much credit when things go well. Do you also think that the economy is the presidents’ sole responsibility?
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This is an interesting topic. I feel there is a lot to consider when trying to understand the intricacies of the labor climate in a country and its relation to the policy decisions of a president. The U.S. Department of Labor recently estimated the unemployment rate to be at 5%, representing roughly 7.9 million Americans. Through this data we can see that during the Obama administration unemployment dropped about 3%, placing it below the historical median of 5.6%.
Your hidden unemployment rate consideration is key to understanding America's circumstance as well. The BLS actually has six different definitions of unemployment. Using a variety of these definitions the unemployment rate can fluctuate between 5%-10%. This is potentially problematic in providing an accurate reflection of how many people are unemployed using a "common sense" definition of the word. The reality is likely much larger than the official unemployment rate of 5%. I think South Korea and the United States are similar in that aspect and so I agree with your position that it is certainly worse than the official numbers suggest.
Personally, I feel it's far too complex to place sole responsibility on the head of state. Though, in the specific example of Obama, I do feel that his administration had a considerable impact on this particular change in the United States.
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