There are lots of people out there that cannot pay the bills each month even though they have jobs.  In fact, there are lots of people out there that literally cannot afford to put a roof over their heads even though they are employed.  Yes, there are many hard working Americans that are now living in their vehicles or in "tent communities" because that is all they can afford.  In recent years, the cost of living has been rising much faster than paychecks have, and so now a substantial percentage of the population is living in a state of constant financial stress.  The middle class has been collapsing all around us, and we are witnessing an extraordinary amount of economic suffering all over the country right now.

For years, the federal government has been telling us that the unemployment rate in the U.S. is very low.

Everyone knows that is a bunch of hogwash.

According to a report that was recently released by the Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity, the true rate of unemployment in the U.S. was 24.3 percent last month…

But another indicator suggests those pieces of government data may be painting an overly rosy picture of the economy, with a recent report from the Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity (LISEP) finding the "true rate" of unemployment stood at 24.3% in April, up slightly from 24% in March, while the official Bureau of Labor Statistics rate remained unchanged at 4.2% over the same period.

LISEP's measure encompasses not only unemployed workers, but also people who are looking for work but can't find full-time employment, as well as those stuck in poverty-wage jobs. By tracking functionally unemployed workers, the measure seeks to capture labor market nuances that other economic indicators miss, such as Americans who are left behind during periods of economic expansion.Investment opportunities

Today, there are millions upon millions of Americans that are "functionally unemployed".

According to Gene Ludwig, you can literally "be homeless and in a tent community and have worked one hour" and be counted as "employed" by the federal government…

"The unemployment data, as it's put out, has some flaws," LISEP chairman Gene Ludwig told CBS MoneyWatch. "For example, it counts you as employed if you've worked as little as one hour over the prior two weeks. So you can be homeless and in a tent community and have worked one hour and be counted, irrespective of how poorly-paid that hour may be."