Unemployment and Optimism

It is hard when we hear the news report almost daily that unemployment rates are soaring. In fact, they are at "RECORD HIGH RATES!!!!!!!!!!!"

I just watched BBC News via my computer and they discussed a government study saying two seemingly contradictory things. One, unemployment rates in Britain are at RECORD HIGHS!!!!!!
Second, employment rates are at record highs. (Guess which was trumpeted by the media?) How can that be?

It is easy to understand. The total number of in the workforce is higher, much higher than ever before. Thus, GB has far more people working and not working at the same time.

Now let's return to the USA and see what is happening. One would assume that all the news is bad and getting worse. All we hear is disaster, bankruptcies and despair. Here are the headlines:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7537463.stm
The US unemployment rate climbed to 5.7% in July official figures show, its highest in more than four years. Firms cut workers for a seventh month in a row.
Yet, I am an optimistic realist. Take a look at this chart.
Unemployment rates worldwide, 2005:
World:
6.3%
East Asia:
3.8%
Rich countries:
6.7%
United States:
5.1%
European Union:
8.7%
Japan:
4.5%
Australia:
4.8%
Latin America:
7.7%
Africa:
9.7%
Middle East:
13.2%

This week I read that the unemployment rate in the USA is about the same as it was in 2005. I just watched the BBC say that the rate in Great Britain is 11.40% and in Germany it is higher. In other words, the USA has less than half the unemployed people of two other wealthy European nations.

Despite this, we have some politicians shouting about how Europe's ways are superior to our own. They say that America is in an awful, terrible economic condition and we must immediately adopt more of the EU's high taxes and welfare ideas.

I suppose these Left Wing Pols want us to catch up with the EU by doubling our unemployment rate. Maybe they will be happy when we have 10 to 20% of our people out of work. But not me. I am pretty optimistic about America. This nation develops more new jobs every year than the entire EU combined.

Let's not change our great system for one that is worse. All change is not good.