Misery is the life blood of liberal politics. The more people are oppressed, the more voters flock to the Democrat party. It’s no different when it comes to unemployment.

The unemployment number keeps dropping but the number of people in the work force also keeps dropping. What gives? It’s that “new math” that many of us took when we were in junior high. It’s finally paying off for liberals but not for people looking for a job.

Here’s how it works. If a person is not in the work force, he or she is not counted as unemployed. This means the more people that don’t work lowers the number of people who are unemployed. It’s simple new math.

This is important. Liberals want a low unemployment number to keep low information voters in the Democrat fold, but they want more people unemployed so they can keep them dependent on government programs that are their political bread and butter.

In 2004, the Labor Force Participation Rate was around 66 percent. As of January 2014, it’s 63 percent. “1,154,000 fewer Americans are working today than six years ago. . . . 91,455,000 Americans 16 or older did not participate in the nation’s labor force in January, meaning they neither held a job nor actively sought one.”
Dante Chinni writes:

“The workforce-participation declines predate Barack Obama’s presidency, but they have accelerated on his watch. Since Mr. Obama took office in 2009, the labor force participation rate, a measure of the people 16-or-older looking for work or holding a job, has declined by somewhere around 1.5 to 2 percentage points, depending on the month you choose.”

President Obama has had more than five years to fix this problem. As a reminder, Ronald Reagan inherited a much worse set of economic problems. Interest rates and inflation were in double digits. Today, interest rates are at historic lows, and yet the economy is still foundering.
Yes, there are economic sectors that are doing well. The stock market is up. But every time the Federal Reserve indicates that it might stop inflating (“Quantitative Easing”), the market takes a dive. Much of the market advance is artificial.

Youth employment is a disaster, even for college graduates who most likely have college loans to pay back. Even the folks at the Huffington Post noted the problem: “It’s truly a terrible time for recent college graduates to find jobs, according to data released by the New York Fed . . .” It’s the highest it’s been in 20 years.
Of course, the Huffington Post, a mouthpiece for Obama and Co., has to find a silver lining. Here it is: “While recent college grads may not be putting their degrees to use, they’re still better off than their counterparts without a degree.”

It’s even worse for Blacks. “According to figures released by the Labor Department, after two months of decline, Black unemployment rose, from 11.9 percent in December to 12.1 percent in January.”

What’s the solution to the unemployment problem among Blacks? You guessed it. A new government program. Democrat Rep. John Conyers “introduced the Humphrey Hawkins Full Employment and Training Act, which, if passed, he says, would particularly benefit African-Americans.”

Who’s going to pay for the Act? Taxpayers. Why not lower taxes and get rid of the minimum wage. That way, the unemployable will have a chance to compete for jobs.

Democrats can’t let this happen because it means that these people would no longer be dependent on government. Votes would be lost.