US / The number of self-employed at all-time low

Everything socio-economical and political at at an all-time low!

Job Market Monitor

The unemployment rate in the United States is at a four-year low, but another labor stat is shrinking in not such a favorable way: a decline in the number of self-employed Americans suggests the personal business will soon be a thing of the past.

Since the Great Depression, the number of Americans who identify themselves in the work force as “self-employed as a share of non-farm employment” has been getting smaller. Some economists now say though that the major US recession that started in 2007 will soon send that stat straight down to zero.

The number of self-employed Americans at the end of World War II was roughly one-quarter of the country’s population, but during the length of just the 1960s that section shrank from nearly 20 percent to being barely in the double digits. From the 1970s through the first half of the ‘90s that rate stayed constant, but…

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Be grateful….

Then wake up, and realise who is the owner of that glass, who keeps you in check, in fear of loosing it, and get free from its owner! Once the cup is yours, you can keep it full, empty or however you choose…Whoever owns the cup, is your master!

Henry David Thoreau on the trade is always between attachments (what keeps one busy, keeps one in bondage!)

Most men, even in this comparatively free country, through mere ignorance and mistake, are so occupied with the factitious cares and superfluously coarse labors of life that its finer fruits cannot be plucked by them.

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) Discuss

“What keeps one busy, keeps one in bondage!”

George-B

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Today’s Birthday: LEOPOLD II, HOLY ROMAN EMPEROR (1747)

Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor (1747)

The third son of Maria Theresa and Holy Roman Emperor Francis I, Leopold II succeeded his father as duke of Tuscany in 1765 and his brother as emperor and ruler of the Hapsburg lands in 1790. A practitioner of what has been termed enlightened despotism, Leopold is remembered as a ruler of outstanding diplomatic and administrative abilities. He was emperor for just two years, but in that time, he precipitated the decade-long French Revolutionary Wars by making an alliance with what power? More… Discuss

 

This Day in the Yesteryear: FIRST AMERICAN IN SPACE (1961)

First American in Space (1961)

In 1961, 23 days after Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit Earth, astronaut Alan Shepard became the first American to be launched into space. Shepard’s suborbital flight—part of the US space program Project Mercury—reached a height of 115 miles (185 km). He performed several maneuvers of his capsule, Freedom 7, but returned after only a 15-minute flight. Although Gagarin was the first human in space, Shepard was the first to return in what way? More…Discuss

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MIXED MESSAGES WHEN IT COMES TO LIGHT DRINKING DURING PREGNANCY

There is no doubt that heavy drinking during pregnancy causes significant harm to one’s fetus, but experts are divided when it comes to light drinking. The data from a recent study of 10,534 UK children indicate that light drinking—defined as no more than two units of alcohol a week—during pregnancy does not harm a child’s behavioral or mental development, at least not before age seven. Experts are quick to caution expectant mothers that these results are not definitive and that more research is needed. The safest course of action, they say, is to abstain from alcohol throughout pregnancy. More… Discuss

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THE DREAM ARGUMENT (And the reality of other dreams: It is reffered to as a dream, because you have to be asleep in order to beleive it)

The Dream Argument

When people dream, they often are not aware of the fact that the experiences they are having exist only in their minds. It is precisely this phenomenon that has given rise to the dream argument, a philosophical postulation that contends that our senses, on which we rely to distinguish reality from illusion, cannot be fully trusted. Both Plato and Descartes, among other prominent philosophers, expounded on this topic. What successful film trilogy is based on this premise? More… Discuss

Published on Mar 1, 2013

Adam Brand gives his argument in opposition of dreaming the American dream.
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Adam Brand states that America is the richest country of all time and yet its wrapped with inequality, indiscipline and indecency.
He highlights the lack of Social Mobility within America saying the system favour white male Americans. He says that Education costs in America are incredibly high offering the best education to only the wealthiest of applicants, widening the gap between the rich and the poor. 
He says that’s the freedom to bare arms and to be able to buy a gun anywhere has lead to multiple murders and massacres such as Columbine and Sandy Hook.
Filmed on Wednesday 24th January 2013
MOTION: THIS HOUSE STILL DREAMS THE AMERICAN DREAM

ABOUT ADAM BRAND:
Law student at University College Oxford.

ABOUT THE OXFORD UNION SOCIETY: 
The Union is the world’s most prestigious debating society, with an unparalleled reputation for bringing international guests and speakers to Oxford. It has been established for 189 years, aiming to promote debate and discussion not just in Oxford University, but across the globe.