Does Obama meet the test of socialist?

• “With about 2.0 million civilian employees, the Federal Government, excluding the Postal Service, is the Nation's largest employer.

• About 85 percent of Federal employees work outside the Washington, DC metropolitan area.

• A substantial number of job openings will arise as many Federal workers are expected to retire over the next decade; competition is high during times of economic uncertainty, however, when workers seek the stability of Federal employment.”

• “Local governments employ more than twice as many workers as State governments.

• Professional and service occupations accounted for more than half of all jobs; fire fighters and law enforcement workers, concentrated in local government, are among the largest occupations.

• Although job prospects vary by State and region, overall prospects are expected to be favorable.

• Employer-provided benefits are more common among State and local government employees than among workers in the private sector.”

“State and local government, total: 8,274,600  = 100%

 Local government total: 5,819,100 = 70.3%

State government total: 2,455,500 = 29.7%”     

“Socialism is an economic and political theory advocating public or common ownership and cooperative management of the means of production and allocation of resources.[1][2][3] A socialist society is characterized by a free association, which is not based on coercive wage labour. It is organized on the basis of relatively equal power relations, self-management, collective decision-making and adhocracy rather than hierarchical, bureaucratic forms of organization in the economic and political systems.

As an economic system, socialism is a system of production and allocation based on the direct production of use-values by allocating economic inputs, the means of production and investment through planning to directly satisfy economic demand.  Economic calculation is based on either calculation-in-kind, some physical magnitude or a direct measure of labour time.[4][5] Output for individual consumption is distributed through markets, and distribution of income is based on individual merit or individual contribution.[6]”

“The socialist president plays host to capitalism

By Dana Milbank

Wednesday, December 15, 2010; 5:51 PM

The titans of American industry were all assembled at the White House complex Wednesday. There was Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google. There was Kenneth Chenault, the chairman of American Express. And there was Barack Obama, the sometimes owner of General Motors, Chrysler, Citibank, Bank of America, AIG, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The president's advance team handled it like a state visit. The Secret Service shut down Lafayette Square as the CEOs huddled inside Blair House -- where foreign dignitaries often stay. The U.S. Park Police were mounted, the presidential limousines were idling, and men with scary-looking weapons stood in the shrubbery. The only thing missing was the display of the visitors' flag -- in this case, the dollar sign -- from the lampposts.

It looked like a state visit because it was a state visit, in the sense that President Obama was hosting leaders who are, to his administration, very foreign. The land's leading capitalists were sitting down with a leader caricatured by many Republicans as a socialist, or even, in Newt Gingrich's view, a Kenyan anti-colonialist.

"Chilly out here, guys!" the president said with a friendly wave as he crossed the street from the White House to Blair House.

Chilly outside? Wait until you're in a room with all those CEOs.

"Mr. President!" bellowed CNBC's John Harwood from the press risers on the north lawn. "Can you repair your relationship with business?"

"It's chilly out here," Obama repeated.

Harwood, live on the air, did not know quite what to do with this answer. Off camera, a producer's voice prompted him: "Go, John. Keep talking."

"You see that the president is not in a mood to answer questions today," Harwood continued gamely. "He said, 'It's a little chilly out here,' when I tried to get him to say something."

The president was not about to answer questions because he didn't want to do anything to upset the choreography of the day. It was a chance for Obama to show, in contrast to the perception that many voters had last month, that he is a big fan of the free market and private industry. And it was a chance to have a mostly friendly crowd of CEOs (there wasn't an oil man or a health-insurance boss among them) validate Obama's pro-business bona fides.

Obama has a long climb to overcome the reputation that he is hostile to business; the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, inflamed by health-care reform and Obama's climate-change policy, is on record accusing him of a "general attack on our free enterprise system." But on Wednesday, he began to implement his pro-business business plan.

Before walking to meet the 20 corporate chiefs, Obama delivered a speech that, in the space of just four minutes, included seven mentions of jobs, six of growth or growing, and two of hiring. "Spurring economic growth is what I'll talk about later this morning when I meet with some of America's top business leaders," the president said. (READ: I am a capitalist!) "That includes Jim McNerney of Boeing, who also heads up my Export Council, and several members of my Economic Recovery Advisory Board." (READ: Some of my best friends are capitalists!)”

“Employment Situation Summary Transmission of material in this release is embargoed                USDL-10-1662
until 8:30 a.m. (EST) Friday, December 3, 2010
Technical information:
Household data:       (202) 691-6378  *  cpsinfo@bls.gov  *  www.bls.gov/cps
Establishment data:   (202) 691-6555  *  cesinfo@bls.gov  *  www.bls.gov/ces
Media contact:         (202) 691-5902  *  PressOffice@bls.gov
                         THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION -- NOVEMBER 2010
The unemployment rate edged up to 9.8 percent in November, and nonfarm payroll
employment was little changed (+39,000), the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
reported today. Temporary help services and health care continued to add jobs
over the month, while employment fell in retail trade. Employment in most major
industries changed little in November.
Household Survey Data
The number of unemployed persons was 15.1 million in November. The unemployment
rate edged up to 9.8 percent; it was 9.6 percent in each of the prior 3 months.
(See table A-1.)
Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (10.0 per-
cent), adult women (8.4 percent), whites (8.9 percent), and Hispanics (13.2 per-
cent) edged up in November. The jobless rate for blacks (16.0 percent) showed
little change over the month, while the rate for teenagers declined to 24.6 per-
cent. The jobless rate for Asians was 7.6 percent, not seasonally adjusted. (See
tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.)
Among the unemployed, the number of job losers and persons who completed tempor-
ary jobs rose by 390,000 to 9.5 million in November. The number of long-term un-
employed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) was little changed at 6.3 million
and accounted for 41.9 percent of the unemployed. (See tables A-11 and A-12.)
The civilian labor force participation rate held at 64.5 percent in November, and
the employment-population ratio was essentially unchanged at 58.2 percent. (See
table A-1.)
The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred
to as involuntary part-time workers) was little changed over the month at 9.0 mil-
lion. These individuals were working part time because their hours had been cut
back or because they were unable to find a full-time job. (See table A-8.)
About 2.5 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force in November,
up from 2.3 million a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) These
individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and
had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as un-
employed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the sur-
vey. (See table A-16.)
Among the marginally attached, there were 1.3 million discouraged workers in
November, an increase of 421,000 from a year earlier. (The data are not season-
ally adjusted.) Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work
because they believe no jobs are available for them. The remaining 1.2 million
persons marginally attached to the labor force had not searched for work in the
4 weeks preceding the survey for reasons such as school attendance or family
responsibilities. (See table A-16.)
Establishment Survey Data
Total nonfarm payroll employment changed little in November (+39,000). Job gains
continued in temporary help services and in health care, while employment fell in
retail trade. Since December 2009, total payroll employment has increased by an
average of 86,000 per month. (See table B-1.)
Within professional and business services, employment in temporary help services
continued to increase in November (+40,000) and has risen by 494,000 since Septem-
ber 2009.
Health care continued to add jobs over the month, with a gain of 19,000. Much of
the increase occurred in hospitals (+8,000).
Employment in mining continued to trend up over the month. Support activities for
mining added 6,000 jobs in November and has added 74,000 jobs since October 2009.
Retail trade employment fell by 28,000 in November. Job losses occurred in depart-
ment stores (-9,000) and in furniture and home furnishings stores (-5,000).
Employment in manufacturing was little changed over the month (-13,000). Following
job growth earlier in 2010, employment has been relatively flat, on net, since May.
Employment in most other major industries changed little in November.
The average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls held at 34.3
hours in November. The manufacturing workweek for all employees also was unchanged,
at 40.3 hours, and factory overtime remained at 3.1 hours. The average workweek for
production and nonsupervisory employees on private nonfarm payrolls decreased by
0.1 hour to 33.5 hours. (See tables B-2 and B-7.)
In November, average hourly earnings of all employees on private nonfarm payrolls
increased by 1 cent to $22.75. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings
have increased by 1.6 percent. In November, average hourly earnings of private-sec-
tor production and nonsupervisory employees were unchanged at $19.19. (See tables
B-3 and B-8.)
The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for September was revised from -41,000
to -24,000, and the change for October was revised from +151,000 to +172,000.
-----------
The Employment Situation for December is scheduled to be released on Friday,
January 7, 2011, at 8:30 a.m. (EST).”