> If [yada yada] then unemployment would not be so low.
Which seems to indicate that you do believe unemployment is low, but
> the numbers mean the same they have been artificially influenced by other factors
which seems to indicate that you disbelieve the evidence that unemployment is low...
The reason I ask if you are OK is that this is exactly the kind of thing which happens--to me as much as anybody--when you are feeling depressed. Any reasons to be optimistic (e.g. unemployment is low) are immediately discounted (e.g. its low because minimum wage hasn't kept up), or even just flat-out denied (unemployment isn't even low, because the numbers are cooked.)
Which is bad enough, but all the reasons for pessimism get magnified (e.g. purchasing power hasn't kept ups). The result is a self-reinforcing cycle of pessimism, which makes you completely immune to things which would ordinarily cheer you up and help you out of the trap.
> artificially influenced...the ability to measure the economy through unemployment has been nerfed....
Yeah. The danger with this kind of skepticism is where does it stop? I mean, sure, if you want to use the unemployment numbers as a source of information, you should know what is being measured and how its being measured. But to just dismiss this metric out of hand--when every other economist in the world follows it closely and thinks its useful--is just too facile. You can doubt anything. And it can trap you in a bad place. I hope you are all right.