President Obama will be giving an important speech related to jobs and getting the American economy going again on Thursday. What are you hoping our President will focus on as solutions? What do you believe would be the best things we could do to get the economy moving again?
I would vastly prefer that we keep the conversation focused on solutions. I really don't want it to veer off into rants against President Obama or other Democrats, and likewise about Bush, the Tea Party and other Republicans. This issue is too important, ans I want us to consider ideas from the entire political spectrum, and discuss on their own pragmatic merits.
In order to facilitate this discussion, I will start with a sketchy outline of what I would think would work best. It will probably make this longer than many will read, but so be it. I may repeat the initial question throughout the week as a free standing post.
Immediate measures must focus on increasing demand. According to Moody's. a business think tank and ratings service, the most effective methods are increasing food stamp dollars and extending unemployment. These people will immediately turn the dollars back into the economy and fueling demand. Neither are attractive long term measures - I would rather have people working at good paying jobs, but these simple measures have the best kick start effect. The infrastructure bank idea, that combines both public and private funds, could be helpful if projects can be fired up as quickly as possibly. The infrastructure is crumbling and we're going to need to do it anyways, or risk accelerating our continued descent towards third world nation status. I and Moody's see most tax cuts as gimmicky and ineffective. However, if they must be done, than renewing the payroll tax holiday at least gets it into the hands of the right people. On the business side, only tax cuts that specifically encourage employment would be helpful. The rest are a diffuse waste. Finally, some mortgage relief program is warranted. I don't want to reward idiots who bought way too much house, or re-inflate housing values again. But enough must be done to stabilize the market, and restore some sense of balance and equity after the horrible abuse perpetuated by mortgage companies and banks.
Longer term measures must be focused on restoring a booming basis for the American economy - the next great thing that Americans do best. My best bet would be to make America the leaders in the greening of the world economy. Climate change is real and it is accelerating faster than scientist's initial projections. So in my estimation it's kind of like - Save America - Save the planet. To facilitate this, we need to redouble our commitment to research, including joint public/private efforts. We need to commit to developing alternative energies, and we need to commit to mass transit. We need to do this in big, bold race to the moon fashion.
We need to renew our commitment to public education. We are galloping completely in the wrong direction on this now, and the developing world must be laughing their kiesters off at us as they see us cut back school days and treat teachers as if they are greedy, lazy leeches. Use the infrastructure bank to improve school physical plants. Encourage more school hours, not less. Stop teaching to tests, and start teaching to create thinkers. Stop trying to divert funds to private schools. There are a hundred other ideas to improve public education, but I'll leave it there for now.
The infrastructure bank is both a long term and a short term idea. Improved transportation systems can only help businesses move goods faster and more efficiently. Proper power and energy sources will help too. So the short term dollars we spend will be returned multi-fold later. Think of where Vegas would be without the Hoover Dam.
We're never going to get the manufacturing base like we want. We can't compete with the wage structure of developing countries. Granted, the wage structure around the world needs to be improved, but boy, is that gonna take alot of time! Selected tariffs may help, but we don't want to go the way of Smoot-Hawley that helped fuel the Depression. It's a global economy, and we should be a major global player, not a wagons-drawn isolationist.
I think we need to give dignity to our service workers. I don't understand why it's necessary to pay service workers sub-standard wages. Manufacturing jobs used to be in the same boat, and it was only the unions that helped bring them dignity and the ability to truly support families. I believe we should pass the Employee's Free Choice Act. I believe the American economy won't be truly revived until Wal-Mart is unionized.
There are other good ideas. We need better financial reform, so Wall Street doesn't keep plunging us into this madness. Our whole tax reform needs to be radically reformed, in such a way that improves it's progressivity. Our elections need to be more open, not less - the wave of laws trying to make it more difficult to vote are poisonous and truly anti-American. We need campaign finance reform so that our elections are not simply bought off by large corporations and wealthy donors. And we need to have an election structure that allows multiple parties to flourish, so that more ideas are brought to DC, and different groups can compromise and form broader solutions.
So if you managed to get through all that, I would really like to hear your ideas. This is an immediate crisis, and the only truly awful solution is no solution. So let us pray and hope we can come together on this.
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