View Full Version : What should be done about unemployment?
What should be done about unemployment?
Four things Obama can do to stem further job losses in the worst labor market in 70 years
By Robert Reich
Oct. 05, 2009 |
In his Saturday radio address, President Obama acknowledged the White House is exploring "additional options to promote job creation." It's about time. This is the worst job market in 70 years -- including the longest duration of steep job losses.
If anyone had any doubt that something far more dramatic must be done, listen to former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. He warned Sunday against further stimulus because "we are in a recovery, and I think it would be a mistake to say the September numbers alter that significantly." Greenspan has turned into an inverse soothsayer. After his cataclysmic error about where the economy was headed before the meltdown, his views about the future should be carefully noted as being the exact opposite of what's likely to be in store.
The economy may be in a technical recovery, but this is not a real recovery, and the "green shoots" or "positive signs" that Wall Street cheerleaders love to shout about are phantoms of their ever-optimistic imaginations. The stimulus is working but it is far from adequate. Before the stimulus, we were losing more than 500,000 jobs a month. Now that 40 percent of the stimulus has been spent, we are losing more than 250,000 jobs a month.
What to do? With the debt ceiling approaching and the gravitational pull of the 2010 elections increasing, the White House can't go back to Congress with a formal bill to enlarge the stimulus package. Four simpler moves would be to:
(1) Use existing authority under both the stimulus package enacted earlier this year and the nefarious TARP bailout fund -- extending and combining them into a fund to make up for state and local cuts in public school budgets, children's health, public health (we need workers to administer swine flu vaccine) and public transportation. Instead of bailing out banks and giant automakers, we should switch to bailing out public services that average people need.
(2) Propose a one-year payroll tax holiday on the first $20,000 of income. Republicans as well as Blue Dog Dems could go along with this, and it would be a highly progressive tax cut since 80 percent of Americans pay more in payroll taxes than they do in income taxes.
(3) Give small businesses a "new jobs tax credit" for every net new job created over the next year. Granted, under normal circumstances this sort of jobs credit doesn't have much effect, and it's difficult to separate hires that would have happened anyway from net new ones. But we're not in normal circumstances; small businesses, which are responsible for most new jobs, still aren't hiring. They need a boost.
(4) Dramatically expand the Small Business Administration's lending programs and have the Fed buy up the SBA's debt. Big banks are not lending to small businesses. TARP has been an utter failure in this regard. The SBA and the Fed should circumvent them and help small businesses get the capital they need, so they can start hiring again.
The politics of these four steps aren't difficult. It would be hard to get a new stimulus package through Congress, but no member who's up for reelection next year when unemployment is likely to be in double digits wants to be accused by rivals of voting against steps to help small businesses, public schools, children's health, and average working people who need a tax cut.
What should be done about unemployment? | Salon (http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2009/10/05/jobs/)
Nitro Express
10-05-2009, 06:40 PM
Also: Hiring more border patrol people and more Immigration officers. Let's keep the illegals out and throw those who hire them in jail. This would create a lot of jobs.
Second: One of the most important things government does is build infastructure that makes commerce possible. The infastructure in the US is aging and failing. This would create a lot of jobs and cost a fraction of what that banker bailout nonesense cost us.
Third: I think providing scholorships for areas of study that our country needs is a good investment. India and China are graduating 500,000 engineers a year. The US has some of the best technical schools in the world but sadly mostly foriegn students go to them.
And that brings up the whole H1B visa bullshit. The only thing worse than outsourcing is "insourcing". Keeping the jobs physically in America, but bringing in foreigners to work them while qualified Americans go unemployed.
No foreign national should be employed at any US company, or even attending a US school as long as there is an American citizen qualified for that job. Doesn't matter if that foreigner is Indian, Chinese, Russian, or Canadian. Any company deliberately hiring foreigners at the expense of qualified American citizens should be legally terminated. Corporations want to consider themselves "persons" then let them pay the death penalty for treason, as persons do.
Blackflag
10-05-2009, 07:14 PM
I don't disagree with any of this. As I've said before, engineering and science should be free for whoever gets those degrees. If there's an unemployment problem here, step one should be to revoke all those work visas.
I know American engineers who are unemployed, while foreign nationals have jobs. Not only are you fucking the citizen, it's no wonder why students don't want to go into engineering anymore.
And lots of people here have talked about turning off the payroll tax for a while.
Nickdfresh
10-05-2009, 07:22 PM
It's time to start talking about making at least the first two years of a (state, public) college, or an associates degree at a CC, free and extending public education beyond 12th grade. The Asians are doing this as an investment in their future of science and technology, and we do to as our achievements are beginning to plummet...
Blackflag
10-05-2009, 08:48 PM
See? You made that post without using the words "sophistry" or "strawman" at all. And I agree with everything you said. Isn't that much more effective?
jacksmar
10-05-2009, 09:14 PM
And that brings up the whole H1B visa bullshit.
There goes the TSA staff.
Nickdfresh
10-05-2009, 09:39 PM
See? You made that post without using the words "sophistry" or "strawman" at all. And I agree with everything you said. Isn't that much more effective?
And you made a post without resort to any of it. And I agree pretty much with what you said.
See? You made that post without using the words "sophistry" or "strawman" at all. And I agree with everything you said. Isn't that much more effective?
And you made a post without resort to any of it. And I agree pretty much with what you said.
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I think providing scholorships for areas of study that our country needs is a good investment. India and China are graduating 500,000 engineers a year. The US has some of the best technical schools in the world but sadly mostly foriegn students go to them.
I'd like to know how come so many SlurpeeSWAMIS from fricken' PUNJAB, India can get over here, go to Pasadena City College, then move on to USC or UCLA when I was really really struggling at the time.
And it's only gotten worse. I'd like to know how all that went down. I couldn't even afford the damn books I needed! I couldnt afford a damn bus pass, or lunch for that matter but these foreigner assholes got a big free ride and still are so far as I know.
Nickdfresh
10-05-2009, 10:51 PM
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Seshmeister
10-05-2009, 10:56 PM
Third: I think providing scholorships for areas of study that our country needs is a good investment. India and China are graduating 500,000 engineers a year. The US has some of the best technical schools in the world but sadly mostly foriegn students go to them.
Now that the bullshit smoke and mirrors of the financial sector has been found out the only option for the US and the UK are technology and innovation jobs. We can never compete on labor costs building shit, science is the only option.
binnie
10-06-2009, 02:33 AM
No foreign national should be employed at any US company, or even attending a US school as long as there is an American citizen qualified for that job. Doesn't matter if that foreigner is Indian, Chinese, Russian, or Canadian. Any company deliberately hiring foreigners at the expense of qualified American citizens should be legally terminated. Corporations want to consider themselves "persons" then let them pay the death penalty for treason, as persons do.
Shouldn't it be the best person for the job gets the job, regardless of their nationality? If I owned a company, I'd want to hire the person who is going to work hardest and genuinely wants it the most. If that person happened to be foreign, so be it (assuming they had a work visa.)
I actually think competition from outside work is very healthy for the economy.
ELVIS
10-06-2009, 11:20 AM
Not when your own population is starving for work...
Nickdfresh
10-06-2009, 12:01 PM
Now that the bullshit smoke and mirrors of the financial sector has been found out the only option for the US and the UK are technology and innovation jobs. We can never compete on labor costs building shit, science is the only option.
Eventually we might though. One of the benefits of "peak oil" is that one day it will cost too much to import manufactured goods because the lower labor costs will be eclipsed by higher fuel costs. And as they say, manufacturing will be local again...
Blackflag
10-06-2009, 12:19 PM
Shouldn't it be the best person for the job gets the job, regardless of their nationality? If I owned a company, I'd want to hire the person who is going to work hardest and genuinely wants it the most.
1. You only own the company because you're in an environment where you can prosper - a society financed by the citizens. The least you can do in exchange is hire citizens and pay your taxes.
2. Your way just becomes a race to the bottom, because people will hire the cheapest labor they can - like a guy from India with a work visa.
3. Your "whatever is best for my company" attitude is probably the same rationale companies use when they hire illegal aliens.
ELVIS
10-06-2009, 12:26 PM
Or take the company offshore...
Nickdfresh
10-06-2009, 01:20 PM
Or take the company offshore...
But then it would sink...:(
ELVIS
10-06-2009, 01:56 PM
What would sink ??
What should be done about UNDERemployment?
Since I started working for myself, about 12 hours a week when I feel like it less than that even, I'm technically off the reporting table.
I'm not unemployed but I also don't have a job - how does one categorize that?
ZahZoo
10-07-2009, 08:20 AM
What should be done about UNDERemployment?
Since I started working for myself, about 12 hours a week when I feel like it less than that even, I'm technically off the reporting table.
I'm not unemployed but I also don't have a job - how does one categorize that?
How about, Lazy-assed oxygen thief...
Nitro Express
10-09-2009, 07:02 PM
Now that the bullshit smoke and mirrors of the financial sector has been found out the only option for the US and the UK are technology and innovation jobs. We can never compete on labor costs building shit, science is the only option.
Exactly. Nobody can compete with China in numbers manufacturing. Vietnam is the only country that comes close to competing. The US Dollar would have to lose 80% of it's value to compete with China.
Science and innovation is the only card the US and the UK can play and both our countries have the same economic problems. The Pound and Dollar are turning to shit and I don't buy into the BS that this will help us. One sollution I see is an energy revolution. Something on par with the Apollo Program or Manhattan Project to get us off oil.
Nitro Express
10-09-2009, 07:06 PM
The thing is our politicians are bought and paid for by big oil and bankers who don't want innovation that will hurt their bottom line. They want to keep us on oil and they want war. They make money this way. Obama could make his Nobel Piece Prize less of a joke if he had the vision to motivate us to get off of oil in ten years like Kennedy did for going to the moon. No need for oil, the war has less to fight over and we leave the middle east.
Nitro Express
10-09-2009, 07:13 PM
I probably would still be working in corporate America if it wasn't such a hypocritical scam. I saved 20% of my income and had a pretty good "Fuck You!" Fund. I remember giving my notice to my boss and he begged me to stay and asked what are you going to do? I invested in real estate and did real well in that. I still own some real estate and am a partner is some businesses one of which includes making vodka from Idaho potatos. LOL!
vh rides again
10-14-2009, 07:06 AM
they could outlaw the bloodsucking temp to hire companies. what a scam.
Nickdfresh
10-14-2009, 11:24 AM
they could outlaw the bloodsucking temp to hire companies. what a scam.
They don't need to outlaw them, just raise the minimum wage to at least $10 an hour for workers out of high school and 18+. Then force companies to pay comparative wages to temp workers. I don't think temp-services are inherently bad, but yeah, the exploitative way they're run to take advantage of loopholes and to shield companies from liability is pretty disgusting...
Necroposting.... because something STILL needs to be done.
vanhalen1r2
09-04-2010, 10:26 PM
And that brings up the whole H1B visa bullshit. The only thing worse than outsourcing is "insourcing". Keeping the jobs physically in America, but bringing in foreigners to work them while qualified Americans go unemployed.
No foreign national should be employed at any US company, or even attending a US school as long as there is an American citizen qualified for that job. Doesn't matter if that foreigner is Indian, Chinese, Russian, or Canadian. Any company deliberately hiring foreigners at the expense of qualified American citizens persons do.
FORD is onto something.
vanhalen1r2
09-04-2010, 10:28 PM
Necroposting.... because something STILL needs to be done.
Flush the current Congress and Senate, next flush the cesspool of corruption out of the White House
Seshmeister
09-04-2010, 10:54 PM
Round up the merchant bankers and traders and cook them and feed them to the unemployed. Use their skins for clothing and use the time this buys to retrain people for the neccesary evil of these jobs. Once they take their place in Wall Street having them wear the skins of their predecessors would hopefully make them think twice before acting like crooks...
vanhalen1r2
09-04-2010, 10:57 PM
Round up the merchant bankers and traders and cook them and feed them to the unemployed. Use their skins for clothing and use the time this buys to retrain people for the neccesary evil of these jobs. Once they take their place in Wall Street having them wear the skins of their predecessors would hopefully make them think twice before acting like crooks...
Correct we have allowed these people to act like crooks and be crooks at our expense.
Round up the merchant bankers and traders and cook them and feed them to the unemployed. Use their skins for clothing and use the time this buys to retrain people for the neccesary evil of these jobs. Once they take their place in Wall Street having them wear the skins of their predecessors would hopefully make them think twice before acting like crooks...
Now there's an original approach! :lmao:
BigBadBrian
09-05-2010, 01:08 PM
And that brings up the whole H1B visa bullshit. The only thing worse than outsourcing is "insourcing". Keeping the jobs physically in America, but bringing in foreigners to work them while qualified Americans go unemployed.
No foreign national should be employed at any US company, or even attending a US school as long as there is an American citizen qualified for that job. Doesn't matter if that foreigner is Indian, Chinese, Russian, or Canadian. Any company deliberately hiring foreigners at the expense of qualified American citizens should be legally terminated. Corporations want to consider themselves "persons" then let them pay the death penalty for treason, as persons do.
AGREED wholeheartedly. You see, there is common ground.
Also, tax the fuck out of HP and other companies with tech support in India or the Philippines. Those are increased taxes I can live with.
thome
09-05-2010, 01:26 PM
The total sqft of the suburb I live in is composed of suburban bliss ( I believe. still illegal to have just a bar without food we have two restaurants that have drinks) and the footage is approx 6 sq miles not a mile in any direction from the center point all surrounded by more bliss. Women walking thier newborns, in a Halcion Daze, in a carrige in the middle of the street (while there is millions of dollars of sidewalks 5 ft to the left, lady)
7 million dollar buget per year
150 city employees
14 regular duty cops
11 city council members
10 police vehicles with sexy cop paint and the computer e@ perhaps 200K$
One is a dodge 300 ooooh dude he could almost get that thing to 55mph before hiting the city line.
They have torn down several schools to make room for more condos for old folks to increase the tax base even more.
They are trying now to strong arm a 19 hole golf course and country club that has been in busines since before the incorporation in 49'.
It would be better as a city owned high rise old folks home...see they want to go up... to increase theft... from the people, not to provide housing for oldsters, instigate tax buget windfalls.
( oh... I cannot have a 3X3 shed in my back yard but -THEY- can build a high rise in the middle of suburban bliss.)
When a city becomes sealed within borders and cannot expand it turns on it's self eats it's self alive and destroys itself .
The problem is not unemployment the problem is BIGGER GOVERNMENT WITHOUT THE ABILITY TO STOP IT!!!!
THEY ARE SUKKING US DRY and we are getting fired due to heavy taxes on BUSINESS YOU ASSHOLES!!!!
vanhalen1r2
09-05-2010, 01:33 PM
7 million dollar buget per year
150 city employees
14 regular duty cops
11 city council members
10 police vehicles with sexy cop paint and the computer e@ perhaps 200K$
One is a dodge 300 ooooh dude he could almost get that thing to 55mph before hiting the city line.
They have torn down several schools to make room for more condos for old folks to increase the tax base even more.
They are trying now to strong arm a 19 hole golf course and country club that has been in busines since before the incorporation in 49'.
It would be better as a city owned high rise old folks home...see they want to go up to increase theft from the people not provide house instigate tax buget windfalls.
( oh... I cannot have a 3X3 shed in my back yard but -THEY- can build a high rise in the middle of suburban bliss.)
When a city becomes sealed within borders and cannot expand it turns on it's self eats it's self alive and destroys itself .
The problem is not unemployment the problem is BIGGER GOVERNMENT WITHOUT THE ABILITY TO STOP IT!!!!
THEY ARE SUKKING US DRY and we are getting fired due to heavy taxes on BUSINESS YOU ASSHOLES!!!!
Props
thome
09-05-2010, 01:50 PM
Props
Hi my mane is (____________) I will work for -YOU- come election day.
You know what.... what would be cool is if we could think of a way to give more money to employe more people thu taxes???......... and cash pools , by order of the secret police! all under the guise of helping the people...?
Hmmm ... what could we call it....???
What do people already have that we can take away and then give back at a similar cost..??
But!!! We The Government Of The Government For The Govenment....will end up owning it ...??
Maybe something to do with care something...?
Or some health thing...?
The problem is not unemployment for a communist trying to slowly erode the constitution into a monster of, most people work to support the lager amount of people who are employed by the taxation of the first group.
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