[dragonwriter]

The only problem with that rant is that the entire premise is false. Unemployment benefits have a time limit, but unemployment statistics do not (you only fall off of the headline unemployment statistic if you become institutionalized or employed, stop actively looking for work, or die.)

[TheCoelacanth]

Even some of the people who stop actively looking for work are still tracked in unemployment statistics, just not in the U3 rate that is usually reported headlines. Discouraged and marginally attached workers who have stopped looking for work because they don't think they will find a job but who would like to work if they could find one are tracked in the U4 and U5 measures.