CHART: Economy Has Recovered All Private Sector Jobs Lost Since Obama Took Office

[JoePhilly]

12. Actually, I do care about the whole story.

But I am also smart enough to separate individual data points, and trends.

Let me explain it this way.

When I was laid off a few years back. That hurt me and my family. And, it contributed a data point to a larger graph of employment trends. When I got a new job, that helped my family, and also contributed a new data point to the trend analysis.

And so ... each data point is its own story. The people you mention are their own story. And a trend line which pulls in many data points is an aggregate, and as such it can never "tell the whole story".

If one can not comprehend the difference between a data point, versus the aggregate of data points that a trend represents, then the country is screwed because in that situation, the only data point that matters is mine.

And I know you are thinking "YES" ... if I am out of work, my data point is the only data point that matters. But what if the people with jobs also take that position ... "only my data point matters". Then we are all screwed long term. Those who have jobs don't worry about those without.

The trends matter regardless of whether your personal data point is currently in the plus or the minus column. And if we forget that, those who happen to be in the "minus" column at a given moment will tend to stay there. Because those in the plus column will only worry about their own data point.

I'd love to see the economy move forward faster. To see it do so, you have to look at trends.

Also ... for the group of people you mention who are about to lose their jobs ... will Obama or Romney be more likely to help get them jobs in the future? Which policies might help them or hurt them?