Economics

1) Explain why the government numbers for unemployment do not necessarily reflect the real situation with unemployment in the country.

The government only counts U3 as the unemployment rate. The reality is that there are still U4, U5, and U6, categories of unemployment. The category that the U.S. government takes into account (U3) is people that have been out of work for 15 weeks or longer, who just lost their jobs, or completed temporary work. The reason the government’s numbers are not accurate is because they don’t take into account the discouraged workers, the loosely attached workers, and the part time workers who want full time work, but can’t find any because of the recession. They don’t count the people who are “underemployed” for example someone who is a highly qualified psychologist but is currently working at McDonalds.

2) What was Robert Owen's basic belief about the solution to the problem of poverty?

He believed in creating a utopia where poverty did not exist. He said “paupers could become the producers of wealth if they were given a chance to work” (112). Owen wanted to make the poor productive, and was known for his strong position to abolish child labor. He also advocated for a shorter working day. Also, Owen suggested that the solution to the problem of poverty lay in “making the poor productive” (111). He wanted to form “Villages of Cooperation” in which “eight hundred to twelve hundred souls would work together on a farm and in a factory to form a self-sustaining unit” (111). In this “self-sustaining unit” he said, “children over the age of three were to be boarded separately so that they could be exposed to the kind of education that would best mold their characters for later life” (111). This whole system would be a “factory unit; in effect this would be a planned garden city” (111), out in the distance, isolated from the rest of the world.

3) Explain the concept of Fourier's phalanxes.

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Fourier believed that society...