Oh. My. God: LAT Times Finds the Fun in Unemployment, Coining the Term (and I'm Not Kidding) "Funemployment"

The Rhetorican wonders what's next-- funflation?

I thought the AP was really spinning hard for Obama by suggesting bin Ladin's criticisms of him showed he was "worried" (apparently he wasn't worried, but rather contented, when he spat all that venom at Bush), but this, I think, goes even further.

Funny, I don't remember anything about the lastest "funemployment numbers" when Bush was in office.

Really, LAT. You've broken the axle, now you're just grinding steel.

For the 'funemployed,' unemployment is welcome

These jobless folks, usually singles in their 20s and 30s, find that life without work agrees with them. Instead of punching the clock, they're hitting the beach.

Michael Van Gorkom was laid off by Yahoo in late April. He didn't panic. He didn't rush off to a therapist. Instead, the 33-year-old Santa Monica resident discovered that being jobless "kind of settled nicely."

Week one: "I thought, 'OK . . . I need to send out resumes, send some e-mails, need to do networking.

Every week since: "I'm going to go to the beach and enjoy some margaritas."

What most people would call unemployment, Van Gorkom embraced as "funemployment."

While millions of Americans struggle to find work as they face foreclosures and bankruptcy, others have found a silver lining in the economic meltdown. These happily jobless tend to be single and in their 20s and 30s. Some were laid off. Some quit voluntarily, lured by generous buyouts.

Buoyed by severance, savings, unemployment checks or their parents, the funemployed do not spend their days poring over job listings. They travel on the cheap for weeks. They head back to school or volunteer at the neighborhood soup kitchen. And at least till the bank account dries up, they're content living for today.

"I feel like I've been given a gift of time and clarity," said Aubrey Howell, 29, of Franklin, Tenn., who was laid off from her job as a tea shop manager in April. After sleeping in late and visiting family in Florida, she recently mused on Twitter: "Unemployment or funemployment?"

By the way, a commenter posted something very interesting yesterday.

During the Bush Administration, the left and media (BIRM) constantly sought to inflate Bush's actual unemployment numbers by guessing at the number of "discouraged workers," workers who had become so discouraged at trying to find work that they'd given up. They were unemployed, but no longer drawing unemployment benefits or otherwise getting their numbers on to the official government lists, so they were "invisible unemployed."

And every week the left talked them up, and guessed that these "discouraged workers" would, if properly counted, goose Bush's actual unemployment figures by something like 50%.

So:

Anyone heard of any "discouraged workers" lately?

I guess that was a made-up stat that applied only to Bush, just like "jobs saved" is a made-up stat that applies only to Obama.

Breaking: LAT quotes Obama-supporting economist as stating that "a depression is just an expansion with its smile on backwards."

Corrected: It's from The Rhetorician's blog, not Mere Rhetoric.

Whoops, Still Wrong: The Rhetorican, not the Rhetorician. One less "i."

Funsubcribe! Lorien1973 writes:

No wonder so many people funsubcribed to the LA Times a long time ago!

posted by Ace at 01:19 PM

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