RUSH: It is not often that I admit what I’m going to admit. It’s only because it doesn’t require me to admit it. There’s very little that I will admittedly not know. So when there is something that I don’t know, it is somewhat of a red flag moment. It’s somewhat unique. Maybe someone in this audience will have the answer to the question. How does the Department of Labor decide that people have ‘given up looking for work,’ and how do they know how many people that number is? This is important to know since it’s how they decide to drop people out of the workforce and make the workforce smaller.
Now, maybe somebody out there knows the answer to this. I have seen it suggesting that… It used to be if you were out of work for more than two years, you were considered to have given up looking for work. I’ve also heard it said that when you’re unemployment benefits expire, that they then consider you to have dropped out of the workforce. But we’re now paying unemployment benefits for 99 weeks, and I really don’t know how this number is calculated. That can’t be the yardstick anyway if it ever was. How do you know, once the last month of unemployment benefits have been used, the person is still not looking for work?
Is it just something that they figure, they just assume it? That after all of the unemployment benefits have been spent (paid, granted, what have you), they then just take those people out of the workforce? In the past, jobless reports from the AP, for instance, they have often tacked on this paragraph at the end: ‘The unemployment rate fell as more people out of work gave up on their job searches and left the labor force. People who are no longer looking for work aren’t counted as unemployed.’ Now, that’s a very handy technique, but how do they know what the number is? In other words, you have U3. The U3 unemployment number is today 8.9%.
The U6 number is around 16 to 17%, and it consists of those people who are out of work and who have ‘given up looking,’ but how do they know? How does the Department of Labor decide people have given up looking for work? It can’t be person-to-person interviews. (interruption) No, Snerdley, I did not find out the answer to my question yesterday. Well, if somebody sent me the answer, I didn’t see it. But I didn’t have a lot of time to scour e-mail last night, so I don’t know if I got the answer. The question yesterday was silly, but it goes back to the days I had to do my own laundry. It goes back to the days when my mother did my laundry. I played Little League basketball, had grass stains.
My mother couldn’t ever get the grass stains out of there — and yet everyday the St. Louis Cardinal’s uniforms were spic-and-span clean after blood, dirt, mud, gunk, who knows what, tobacco juice. They looked brand-new! It’s all rooted around how come there’s stuff that some people can get to clean their clothes that you can’t find anywhere? So I simply wanted to know: How do these football teams on Sunday look like they’re wearing brand-spanking new uniforms? And I did get one guy said, ‘They are, Rush. These are NFL teams, these are sports. They wear new uniforms every week.’ No, they’re not. I know this.
When I worked for the Kansas City Royals, players got two home jerseys and two road jerseys. That’s it. And they would sew patch the pants. They will actually sew patches into the pants. You can’t see it (you might be able to now on HD if you get a close enough shot), but, no, they’re not brand-new every game, particularly baseball, but even in football they’re not. So no, I didn’t get an answer to it. It’s a silly question anyway, but it’s rooted in the fact that I like to be able to get things that are not widely available. Like… I don’t know. I just got a big thrill out of being able to get coconut oil when nobody can. Now it’s available. You can get coconut oil at Walmart now, and I probably am one of the reasons why.
There probably wasn’t a demand for it. But I’m one of these weirdo guys: Popcorn in the movie theater is better than anywhere else, and no matter what I did I was never able to make it taste that way at home. So I wanted to find out what was different about it. Most people couldn’t care less. I, El Rushbo, did care. I went out and I found out what it was. It was coconut oil, and it took me a number of years because most everybody I would ask had no clue what I was even talking about. That’s how I know. I think it has to do with… (sigh) Dare I say this? I am profoundly curious about those things that interest me.
Now, the things I don’t care about I couldn’t care less about in real terms, but those things that interest me I have an insatiable curiosity — and I’m interested in a lot of things. I also have a thirst and quest for knowledge overall. I’m kind of like the Kennedys, you know, who prided themselves on getting Cuban cigars after THEY implemented the embargo. Well, it’s a well known fact among cigar aficionados that JFK sent his aides out to pick up as many Cuban cigars as possible (in the thousands) when he decided he was gonna embargo products from Cuba so that he would have some before the embargo went into effect. (interruption)
Well, Snerdley, if I had the power to do that I’d do it, too. I most certainly would. Like the iPad 2. The iPad 2 has got this new feature called ‘video mirroring.’ It’s video mirroring — with 1080p output. Video mirroring allows you to connect an AV adapter to a new port that’s only available on the iPad 2, and virtually everything on your screen — whatever’s on your iPad screen — you can watch on a television set (regardless how big or how small) on a projector or what have you. It’s not wireless, it’s wired. So I have already instructed my AV guys to start drilling under my floors to make it possible connect the wires to be able to do this, because I can’t wait to be sitting in front of my 16-foot HD screen in my media room and looking at what’s on my iPad.
I’ll be able to play 720p movie at 1020 out! So a little bit of up convert if I want to go that way, if I want to do it. Or whatever: a Web page or pictures that I’ve taken, put ’em up there. That’s as I’m using the iPad. This is different from airplay, which is, you know, comes from iTunes. This is actual out from the iPad, and the iPad comes out in March. Well, that’s when they start taking orders for it or selling it. Now, you know me. I’m angling behind the scenes: ‘How can I get one on March 10th?’ I mean, after all, I’m a power, influential member of the media. So I must have 15 people out there trying to get their hands on an iPad. It’s like I wanted to know what made movie popcorn taste the way it did, I’m just trying to get hold of these things.
It’s like the unemployment number: How do they know?