What a Great Country!

Most people don't realize what an economic powerhouse the United States is.

In the 1950's, our country could barely sustain a 6% unemployment rate. Jobs were scarce. More than 80% of the families in America had only a single wage earner. The typical American family unit was made up of a stay-at-home housewife and a working husband; the bread winner.

Today, we have a near 5 percent unemployment rate. Almost 50% of the family units in America are single parents; and, those single parents are almost always working parents. That has added a demand for more jobs in America that had been hardly seen in the 1950's. Additionally, of the remaining two-parent family units, many have two wage earners. Again, our economy has been able to absorb all these additional new workers into our system. Finally, we have somewhere between 10 and 20 million illegal aliens; depending on who you listen to. Most of those people have been absorbed into our economy with some form of job.

If we applied today's broader range of available wage earners to the 1950's, we would have easily exceed a 30% unemployment rate back then. There just wouldn't have been enough available jobs to support today's broader range of workers. What is truly amazing is that our economy, since then, has be able to adjust for the societal changes that have added so many new entries into our workforce; and, done so without batting an eye. I just don't think any other mature economy in the world could have claimed to have done the same.