Plato's Cave: Economic and Media Analysis in a Dark Time
Aug 14, 2026 · 43 min · 9 segments
Join us as we focus on the worrisome employment figures, the paralyzing effect of Trump's Loyal Liars fibbing to one another like a Cluster of Pinocchios; Can the Dems sing kum ba ya in the hot tub…
Well, as always, I always take a look at the economy before I come over to do this, and well, it just keeps rolling on [laughs] in the same direction.
It's actually pretty terrifying.
Um, the BLS, Bureau of Labor Statistics for those of you who don't remember, data for July showed that the US economy lost 23,000 jobs.
Oh my goodness, yeah.
Right.
It's been puttering around, going up a little bit, and now it's taken a turn down.
Whoops.
As we mentioned last time, this happened while more workers continued to leave the labor force.
Now, the people who are leaving the labor force are retirements, people over 55 who lose their jobs rarely find a new employment, so they leave the labor force.
Discouraged workers, people who've been looking for jobs so long that they just give up, um, death takes you out of the labor force, as does deportation, but so does being in hiding from ICE, okay? So all these things have taken millions of people out of li- or at least a million people out of the labor force-
Okay
... and this is continuing.
Okay.
Now, the interesting thing here is that the jobs lost were in hospitality.
Tourism and vacations are down.
That's kind of probably the result of the World Cup ending, okay? 'Cause there's a huge influx of vacationers.
Yes.
Education lost jobs, nothing new there, and the financial sector went down.
And, and the question is, was this AI or was this just a downturn? This was as the stock market was going up to a record high.
So we are seeing working families' positions worsen as the rich get richer.
That's President Dementia's idea of heaven.
Healthcare jobs still went up, but that is just demography.
With an aging population, you are likely to get increased use of healthcare because 60% of the money you're gonna spend on healthcare, you spend in the last six months of your life, and you die anyway.
Okay, thanks for that review.
I really appreciate it.
Well, as always, I always take a look at the economy before I come over to do this, and well, it just keeps rolling on [laughs] in the same direction.
It's actually pretty terrifying.
Um, the BLS, Bureau of Labor Statistics for those of you who don't remember, data for July showed that the US economy lost 23,000 jobs.
Oh my goodness, yeah.
Right.
It's been puttering around, going up a little bit, and now it's taken a turn down.
Whoops.
As we mentioned last time, this happened while more workers continued to leave the labor force.
Now, the people who are leaving the labor force are retirements, people over 55 who lose their jobs rarely find a new employment, so they leave the labor force.
Discouraged workers, people who've been looking for jobs so long that they just give up, um, death takes you out of the labor force, as does deportation, but so does being in hiding from ICE, okay? So all these things have taken millions of people out of li- or at least a million people out of the labor force-
Okay
... and this is continuing.
Okay.
Now, the interesting thing here is that the jobs lost were in hospitality.
Tourism and vacations are down.
That's kind of probably the result of the World Cup ending, okay? 'Cause there's a huge influx of vacationers.
Yes.
Education lost jobs, nothing new there, and the financial sector went down.
And, and the question is, was this AI or was this just a downturn? This was as the stock market was going up to a record high.
So we are seeing working families' positions worsen as the rich get richer.
That's President Dementia's idea of heaven.
Healthcare jobs still went up, but that is just demography.
With an aging population, you are likely to get increased use of healthcare because 60% of the money you're gonna spend on healthcare, you spend in the last six months of your life, and you die anyway.
Okay, thanks for that review.
I really appreciate it.
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