Cheney says Economic Stats Miss EBay Sales

John Edwards' response was priceless:

“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.
 
You know what, that's actually an interesting comment he made. Lots of people who might not have started a business 15 years ago, are 'in business' thanks to Ebay. Some of them probably do the business thing, with a corporation and taxes and all, but I'll bet a lot of people either work it 'under the table' or as a side-income/side-interest, undisclosed kind of thing.
According to Ebay's most recent press release for Q2-04:

net revenues 773.4 million
transaction revenues 751.7 million
114 million registered users
332 million new listings
8 BILLION dollar gross merchandise listings [the "total value of all successfully closed listings", or, sales.]
Again, those are Quarterly figures. Not bad at all.
There are 48 million active users, but that counts bidders, buyers, and sellers, so I would assume the actual seller count is much less. And yes, there are certainly plenty of examples of High School Bob selling his video games one a month, but again, there are a lot of 'ebay stores' and power sellers who are 'professional' at it.
They have 12 categories that generate 1 billion or more, in annualized GMV.
If nothing else, Ebay has made 'starting your own business' a whole lot easier, cheaper and more accessible.
Ebay's making money, and people on Ebay are making money. Will we find the next Bill Gates on Ebay? Doubtful. But Ebay is not in the same realm as a garage sale or flea market or lemonade stand.
 
The majority of money made on ebay is illegitimate dusiness.

a.k.a. anything involving Hong Kong, Singapore, China, and most recently the United Kingdom.
 
[quote name='ZarathosNY']http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040910/ap_on_el_pr/cheney_ebay&e=1&ncid=2043

So that's why all those people who are out of work are not looking for jobs, they are selling stuff on Ebay. Does this mean we have to count the guys from Hong Kong who sell counterfeit GBA games in our economic stats?[/quote]

The numbers in the post above mine are interesting and mean that there is something to be said for his statement being pretty meaningful. Also, since unemployment is only 5.4 percent, lower in 1996 when Clinton was reelected, I don't see why the whining about this issue continues, especially when the trend has been in a downward direction.
 
[quote name='elprincipe'][quote name='ZarathosNY']http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040910/ap_on_el_pr/cheney_ebay&e=1&ncid=2043

So that's why all those people who are out of work are not looking for jobs, they are selling stuff on Ebay. Does this mean we have to count the guys from Hong Kong who sell counterfeit GBA games in our economic stats?[/quote]

The numbers in the post above mine are interesting and mean that there is something to be said for his statement being pretty meaningful. Also, since unemployment is only 5.4 percent, lower in 1996 when Clinton was reelected, I don't see why the whining about this issue continues, especially when the trend has been in a downward direction.[/quote]

Because there are over 1 million less jobs now than when Bush took office. The unemployement figure does not include people who have given up looking for work.
 
[quote name='ZarathosNY'][quote name='elprincipe'][quote name='ZarathosNY']http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040910/ap_on_el_pr/cheney_ebay&e=1&ncid=2043

So that's why all those people who are out of work are not looking for jobs, they are selling stuff on Ebay. Does this mean we have to count the guys from Hong Kong who sell counterfeit GBA games in our economic stats?[/quote]

The numbers in the post above mine are interesting and mean that there is something to be said for his statement being pretty meaningful. Also, since unemployment is only 5.4 percent, lower in 1996 when Clinton was reelected, I don't see why the whining about this issue continues, especially when the trend has been in a downward direction.[/quote]

Because there are over 1 million less jobs now than when Bush took office. The unemployement figure does not include people who have given up looking for work.[/quote]

I realize that, but what do you want? It's not like the losses are continuing. Or do you expect 2 million jobs to be created in one month? It's not like the president even has that much control over these things. It's more like he can not do anything to mess it up.
 
[quote name='Quackzilla']The majority of money made on ebay is illegitimate dusiness.

a.k.a. anything involving Hong Kong, Singapore, China, and most recently the United Kingdom.[/quote]

Not true.
 
[quote name='elprincipe'][quote name='ZarathosNY'][quote name='elprincipe'][quote name='ZarathosNY']http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040910/ap_on_el_pr/cheney_ebay&e=1&ncid=2043

So that's why all those people who are out of work are not looking for jobs, they are selling stuff on Ebay. Does this mean we have to count the guys from Hong Kong who sell counterfeit GBA games in our economic stats?[/quote]

The numbers in the post above mine are interesting and mean that there is something to be said for his statement being pretty meaningful. Also, since unemployment is only 5.4 percent, lower in 1996 when Clinton was reelected, I don't see why the whining about this issue continues, especially when the trend has been in a downward direction.[/quote]

Because there are over 1 million less jobs now than when Bush took office. The unemployement figure does not include people who have given up looking for work.[/quote]

I realize that, but what do you want? It's not like the losses are continuing. Or do you expect 2 million jobs to be created in one month? It's not like the president even has that much control over these things. It's more like he can not do anything to mess it up.[/quote]

Actually the losses are continuing, since the jobs created are not keeping up with the growing population. The president CAN do a lot, because govt policies can stimulate job growth. Suppose instead of invading Iraq, we took that 200 billion and used to update the aging infrastruture of our highway systems? or the electric grid? invest in hiring more teachers so classroom sizes are smaller? All of these lead to increases in jobs and are good for the country.
 
[quote name='ZarathosNY'][quote name='elprincipe'][quote name='ZarathosNY'][quote name='elprincipe'][quote name='ZarathosNY']http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040910/ap_on_el_pr/cheney_ebay&e=1&ncid=2043

So that's why all those people who are out of work are not looking for jobs, they are selling stuff on Ebay. Does this mean we have to count the guys from Hong Kong who sell counterfeit GBA games in our economic stats?[/quote]

The numbers in the post above mine are interesting and mean that there is something to be said for his statement being pretty meaningful. Also, since unemployment is only 5.4 percent, lower in 1996 when Clinton was reelected, I don't see why the whining about this issue continues, especially when the trend has been in a downward direction.[/quote]

Because there are over 1 million less jobs now than when Bush took office. The unemployement figure does not include people who have given up looking for work.[/quote]

I realize that, but what do you want? It's not like the losses are continuing. Or do you expect 2 million jobs to be created in one month? It's not like the president even has that much control over these things. It's more like he can not do anything to mess it up.[/quote]

Actually the losses are continuing, since the jobs created are not keeping up with the growing population. The president CAN do a lot, because govt policies can stimulate job growth. Suppose instead of invading Iraq, we took that 200 billion and used to update the aging infrastruture of our highway systems? or the electric grid? invest in hiring more teachers so classroom sizes are smaller? All of these lead to increases in jobs and are good for the country.[/quote]

Wow, the labor force grows by more than 144,000 (the job growth in August)? That's news to me. And the president really can't do that much. Congress holds the power of the purse, and Congress hasn't passed an energy bill (held up by Senate Democrats) or a highway bill (held up by IIRC Republicans). Bush can't exactly sign a bill that hasn't made its way to his desk, so it's really dumb to blame him for not "stimulating job growth" by passing a huge government spending bill. And even Congress can't do that much to stimulate job growth, other than adding more bloated bureaucracy like the Department of Homeland Security.

Also it's very annoying to hear spin like "invest in teachers" from non-politicians (it's annoying enough to hear it from politicians and spin doctors who you expect to hear it from). Why not just tell the truth: spend more money to hire more teachers.
 
Wow, the labor force grows by more than 144,000 (the job growth in August)? That's news to me.
Click to expand...

It should be news to you, its correct. The 144,000 in August "barely kept up with" population growth.

Was August better than before? Yes. And you could say that its a step in the right direction. But being proud of August alone is being proud of simply not losing jobs, not of meaningful growth.
 
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