4 ms·

2 million out of 318 doesn't seem especially newsworthy.

• partisan 11y ago
  It's an insidious problem. Those two million people are not doing any particular thing on any particular day, but en masse, they are taxing the social safety net in ways it is not meant for. Services become limited as resources dry up, healthcare costs go through the roof as the industry soaks up every dollar the government is willing to spend, quality of education plummets as people determine there is no sense in striving for the American dream, prison system costs skyrocket as crime increases, and the list goes on. So it's not newsworthy when taken as a statistic, but you can find that the problem and its societal and human costs definitely are. If your bubble is big enough to keep you insulated from all this, then good for you.
• fiveoak 11y ago
  To put it in perspective: there are more people who want a job but aren't looking for a job than there are people in the entire US prison system (2.6 million vs 2.4 million).
  • aschearer 11y ago
    It would not surprise me if the two are related. Google says there are approximately 20 million felons in the US. It's not difficult to imagine many of them are unable secure employment.