Cheney: What about Ebay? Did you guys see this?? HYSTERICAL!

[AngryLizard]

Presidential Elections - AP


Cheney: Economic Stats Miss EBay Sales

Fri Sep 10, 9:00 AM ET


Indicators measure the nation's unemployment rate, consumer spending and other economic milestones, but Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) says it misses the hundreds of thousands who make money selling on eBay.



"That's a source that didn't even exist 10 years ago," Cheney told an audience in Cincinnati on Thursday. "Four hundred thousand people make some money trading on eBay."


San Jose, Calif.-based EBay Inc. is an Internet auction site where anyone can sell just about anything, including clothing, cell phones, jewelry, memorabilia, trinkets and automobiles.


Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards (news - web sites) responded that Cheney's comments show how "out of touch" he and President Bush (news - web sites) are with the economy.


"If we only included bake sales and how much money kids make at lemonade stands, this economy would really be cooking," Edwards said in a statement.

[loveable liberal]

1. heard about it on garafalo last night.

Yea...crashcart is in touch with the people....

[MidwestTransplant]

2. Here's what Edwards should have said too:

The Vice President would count sombody as employed if they were selling their posessions on Ebay because they needed money to eat as a result of having lost their job (obviously it can be phrased more soundbiteish).

[AussieDave]

3. Desperate times

call for desperate sources of GOOD NEWS - if it weren't so serious it would be laughable.

[cheshire]

4. Yeah I made my million on Ebay not. Edwards is quik and smart.

[LynnTheDem]

5. Forget Ebay!

How about all them GARAGE SALES!

Man, I see dozens of them EVERY WEEKEND around here!

bush/cheney; total fucking incompetant retards.

[sandnsea]

11. My secret is out

I go to yard sales and pick up collectibles and sell them on Ebay. Yep, I'm the economic success Dick Cheney is talking about. 3 ten cent plates I sold for $25 each, a $3.00 pot I sold for $15.00, and a $1.00 casserole I sold for $10.00. Mo' money, mo' money.

(I do it for fun, I can't imagine trying to make a living selling on Ebay)

[Old and In the Way]

6. Along with being a world class greedy bastard and war-profiteer,

he's a world class dummy. No wonder our economy is in the shitter. As if buying and reselling autographs and beanie babies is a solid foundation to build a national economic model on.

But you have to love Edwards' wit. He certainly made Cheney look like a chump with that brillant one-liner.

[EmperorHasNoClothes]

7. Bake sales! That's classic!

How refreshing to have a future veep with a sense of humor

[camby]

8. You can almost smell the desperation from Team Bush

Selling off possessions is now considered a source of income. Actually, bake sales and lemonade stands contribute MORE to the economy, because they involve the act of CREATING something. All e-bay does is help redistribute assets.

[aquart]

9. THIS is Poppy in the supermarket all over again.

WE know what eBay is. What happens there. Cheney hasn't a clue. He's not one of us.

Add that to privileged George in TANG with his cocaine habit....

Good ol' boys done gone.

[guitar man]

10. first, ketchup is a vegetable

now ebay is a "job"

[sandnsea]

12. And burger flipping is manufacturing

Can't forget that one. :eyes:

[guitar man]

15. LOL

Buck up! It's a great economy. The infomercials are just full of jobs. ;)

[Elwood P Dowd]

13. I am making a killing on eBay.

Made at least $200.00 so far this year. Now in 1999, I did actually make about $1,500.00 when the economy was booming. There is no telling how many thousands of jobs I've created on eBay over the years. ;-)

Wanna' know what I do on eBay? I sell junk I no longer want or need, plus I sell my friend's junk they no longer want or need for a 25% commission.

Sometimes, I sell nice stuff for people because they're unemployed or
just desperate for money to pay bills or credit cards. One friend gave me his entire music collection to sell after he lost his job.

Bush and Cheney are so stupid, they couldn't even figure out how to place an ad on eBay in the first place. Can't you picture those idiots trying to figure out how to join eBay, place an ad, post a pic, and then
writing the text to describe the product. They don't know feedback from fuckup!

[gardenista]

16. Uh oh. Did you report this on your taxes? nt

[Elwood P Dowd]

18. Since I use Pay Pal, I reported it. (eom)

:-(

[gardenista]

21. You are an honest Dem. I reported everything I earned, too.

And, I got audited. It was the best possible feeling in the world when those bastards sent me a big check for our full refund, WITH interest!

[Elwood P Dowd]

23. You're two posts away from 1,000.

:party:

[gardenista]

26. I know!!!! Woohoo!!!!

I loved making my 1000th post!

It crept up on me!

[tmooses]

14. I think Cheney and Bush are off their meds

Perhaps all those e-bayers will be added to the labor stats next month as new jobs created.

[JohnnyRingo]

17. E-Bay and garage sales are part of the "Houshold Survey"...

...method of jobs ratings.
This added 400,000 jobs "created" by the current admin.

When they 1st decided to use this formula, they went back and "revised" the numbers in January through March to reflect the improved statistics.

this country is drowning in bullshit....and half the voters appear to wearing nose clips.

[sandnsea]

22. Documentation?

I've been trying to figure that one out. I'd heard about this in the spring, but never got anything to document they'd actually done it. That's how they're keeping the unemployment figure down I'm guessing.

[JohnnyRingo]

33. Sorry...I went to bed before your reply last night

When the White House discovered the "household surveys" showed better results than the "payroll surveys" (Which has been the official method of accounting for decades) they chose to go back to the beginning of the year and revise the numbers to reflect progress in the jobs market in anticipation of the election year:

excerpt:
WOW! U.S. non-farm employment rose by 308,000 for March while January and February 2004 figures were revised (click here) by 159,000 and 46,000, respectively. Now that we’ve heard the oohs and aahs, let’s get down to the looking at the real numbers.

more:
The number of persons employed in the US, per the Household Data Survey went from 138.301 million in February to 138.298 million in March, which indicates that 3,000 fewer people were employed during the month of March than in the month of February.

The number of unemployed persons, per the Household Data Survey, increased from 8.170 million in February to 8.352 million in March. So, while we’re all cheering about the possible ½ million new jobs created over the past three months, another 182,000 people are out of work.

The reason I used the word possible ½ million new jobs is simple. For some reason the BLS is using preliminary figures for both the month of February 2004 and the month of March 2004.

link:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0404/S00029.htm


excerpt:
Talk about flip-flops. The administration and its allies had spent the past few months trying to denigrate and discredit the Bureau of Labor Statistics' establishment survey, from which payroll jobs figures are derived. While attacking the payroll figures, the administration tried to turn public attention to the so-called household survey, from which the unemployment rate is derived. In sharp contrast to the payroll survey, which has shown persistent job loss since President Bush assumed office, the household survey for much of the past two years has shown growth in the number of Americans working. Last October, I dubbed the Bush strategy of criticizing the less favorable jobs survey "antidisestablishmentarianism."

link:
http://slate.msn.com/id/2098408/

excerpt
On balance, most economists -- notably including Alan Greenspan -- favor the larger payroll survey, which shows a stagnant jobs picture, as the best indicator of the labor market situation. Figure 3 (below) shows the latest trends in employment from both surveys.

http://www.centrists.org/pages/2004/03/5_lemieux_econ.html

[JCMach1]

19. Don't forget the garage sales

Dumass...

[YoQuieroLiberty]

20. How pathetic!

So unemployment is actually negative, since us employed folk also sell stuff on eBay?

[JohnnyRingo]

24. Unfortunately....It's still 5.4%, even considering such "fuzzy math"

The economy is going to hell on a rocket sled.

[YoQuieroLiberty]

25. Well, THAT'S not quite true

Unemployment is quite a lot higher elsewhere, and they're not dying. Americans are just accustomed to a higher standard of growth and opportunity. This administrations paint-by-numbers bullshit is sadly and woefully inadequate for the growth challenge.

Bush. Never worked an honest day in his life. I don't think there's one working man the guy can identify with.

[gauguin57]

27. Will my shiny new Ebay job offer me benefits ..

... like HEALTH INSURANCE, Unca Dick?

[Elwood P Dowd]

28. Sure it does

If you can find enough unplayed Beetles Butcher Block LPs at $20,000 each and a few tapes of Elvis serenading his mother back in 1952, you won't have any problem with health insurance. An 8mm of George W. Bush having oral sex with Pickles will probably seal the deal with Blue Cross-Blue Shield.

[Professor_Moriarty]

29. Osama Bin Laden is selling box cutters on eBay.Count that!

[newyawker99]

32. Hi Professor_Moriarty!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[union_maid]

30. Edwards is not far from the truth

In the 80's famous rich person CZ Guest, who was delighted that the Reagan administration made it cool to be wealthy again, talked about the less fortunate in an interview. She said that rich people were good because they created the jobs and poor people were whining because you could always do something to make money. She used baking pies as an example. At the time, most poor still had some type of home. Urban poor typically had apartments in vastly substandard buildings with rats included in your rent. Besides trying to figure out how many pies you'd have to bake and sell in order to have a profit margin large enough to support a family, I was trying to figure how those people were going to get their kitchens approved for producing or even storing food for sale. Of course, by the end of the Reagan administration many of the poor had moved to the great outdoors and were somewhat mobile, due to the necessitity of moving on occasioned by police raids on homeless settlements in parks and under bridges and the usual spots, also not great conditions for the pie baking industry.

[snippy]

31. But is our eBay sellers' earning? n/t