Barack Obama is not the only one that is demonstrably out of touch with today’s bleak economy. I would nominate the creators of the new iPhone app called Quit Your Job as being just as clueless.
In today’s Obamanomy the vast majority of people aren’t worried about quitting their job, they are worried about keeping their job. Or worse yet, they are worried about finding a job.
The Quit Your Job developers say they mean for the app to be funny. A lighthearted look at self–induced employment termination, if you will. In fact, the software’s tongue–in–cheek sales pitch says, “Quit Your Job is a free iPhone app that uses an emerging technology called ‘text messaging’ to tell your boss where he can put that job.”
But in an economy where gasoline prices were the highest in history on Jan. 1 and the median net worth of U.S. families plunged from $126,400 in 2007 to $77,300 in 2010 — a loss of almost $50,000 — joblessness is no laughing matter.
The White House spins federal employment rate numbers faster than Iranian centrifuges spin uranium, although not as effectively. Administration flaks claim recovery is at hand when the unemployment rate declines an infinitesimal 0.3 percent, from 7 percent to 6.7 percent. But what they fail to explain is that percentage only reflects the optimistic or highly–motivated people who are still looking for work.
The number of individuals who could hold jobs, but have stopped looking is now a record 91.8 million. (As an aside, have you noticed the only records the Obama administration is capable of setting are records for misery? Jobs, gasoline prices, economy and health care are all continuing disasters. And Obama is blissfully unaware of it all.)
The last time the labor force participation rate was this abysmally low was in 1978 — two years before my father took office — when the incumbent president was another misery meister by the name of Jimmy Carter.
The net result of Obama’s intervention in the economy over the past five years is the poverty rate under his guidance has broken a 50–year record. A startling 50 million Americans now live under the poverty line and 47 million receive food stamps.
It’s hard not to feel hopeless in an economy like this. That’s why I suggest the product team start working on an app called Keeping Your Job. The potential market is much, much larger and they might even be able to charge for it.
Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald Reagan. He is president of The Reagan Legacy Foundation and chairman of the League of American Voters. Mike is an in-demand speaker with Premiere. Read more reports from Michael Reagan — Go Here Now.