Unemployment Falls

It seems counterintuitive that when someone who is unemployed stops looking for a job, they are no longer counted as unemployed. The Labor Department has reported that the unemployment rate recently declined to a record-breaking low for the first time in 53 years. With this being said, the amount of jobs added during this period of time shouldn’t reflect this change. The analysis of these numbers fails to account for people who have given up their job search which shows the decline in unemployment isn’t actually as promising as it looks. This poses a lot of questions into the validity of the unemployment rate and what is being projected to the public.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2011/02/04/133489738/unemployment-falls-but-economy-only-adds-36k-new-jobs

Why Not Regulate Guns?

It seems counterintuitive that guns are being blamed for the death of citizens, yet the handler is not considered. Many studies have found that 80 people die from guns on any given day. Evidence even points to handguns endangering those who own them. An ongoing debate is what should happen with the regulation of guns and who is allowed to purchase them. Countless believe harsher background checks need to be taken, more gun safes need to be made, and limiting purchases to once a month should be implemented. The solution seems to be regulating guns just like toys and cars. Guns seem to be the main point of focus, and never who is behind it. An inanimate object cannot shoot or pose risk by itself without an operator. So why try and create new harsher laws, when the laws we currently have aren’t being enforced or followed? Criminals and people who pose a threat with guns have no intent on following these laws so adding more, may in turn hurt the abiding citizens. Education about guns and acknowledging their presence might just be the simplest solution.

PTSD Statistics

It seems counterintuitive that even with chilling statistics of mental health problems among veterans, more outreach programs have not been created. Veterans only make up a small amount of the American population. Of this 7%, almost all have needed VA health care and been diagnosed with some kind of disability. Trauma is now labeled as “expected” when serving and seen to affect anyone a veteran has close contact to. Suicide rates have also risen and are the number one cause of death to US troops. New records are being set everyday for vets that require health care services. The VA pays an average of 600 million a year for PTSD treatment, so why are things not changing? Maybe more outreach programs need to be implemented in order to give care to each veteran who needs it. Barriers to care seem to be at a high which needs to be solved before more lives are taken.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK201091/