Subscribe to Common Dreams News Updates
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
Obama Must Get Going on Jobs
He asked for it, so let's shove this agenda into his line of vision: jobs. Middle-class jobs. Jobs with a future. Jobs doing useful work that contributes to American progress and the common good. Lots and lots of those jobs.
Obama has talked often about the need for more jobs. But he's put little presidential heft into creating them, instead focusing most on extending unemployment benefits to assuage some of the pain of being jobless.
Incredibly, he tried for a while to rationalize his "banker-first" Wall Street bailout as a jobs stimulus! The argument went like this: rescuing failed bankers might induce them to make loans to corporations, which then might increase corporate production, which then might cause corporate executives to hire some Americans (unless, of course, they used the capital to expand operations in China). That's a lot of "mights," and, as we've seen, the money mostly remains in the tight clutches of the bailed-out bankers, producing little "trickle-down" benefit.
Meanwhile, the nation's official unemployment rate is soaring to 10 percent and beyond. That's not a statistic — it's 15 million struggling people. Plus their families. Their numbers nearly double when we add in part-time workers who need and want full-time jobs, as well as other underemployed and discouraged workers.
Meet Debbie Kransky, a striver from America's great middle class who's now struggling. Living in Milwaukee, this intelligent and hard-working 51-year-old was offed by a medical firm in February and has been jobless ever since, despite being constantly on the hunt. Her unemployment benefits have run out, and her small life savings have been depleted.
"I've got October rent," she told a New York Times reporter. "After that, I don't know. I've never lived month to month my entire life. I'm just so scared, I can't even put it in words."Not only are there millions of Debbies out here, but there are also many more millions who feel they're next. They know that there are already six "officially unemployed" people (not counting those part-timers) for every job opening that becomes available in our country today.
Yet, they now hear economists, pundits and politicians from both parties cheerfully chirping that the recession is "over." Obama himself, when asked about the oxymoron of a "jobless recovery," responded with this breezy insight: "As you know, jobs tend to be a lagging indicator; they come last."
Excuse me? Jobs are not an "indicator." They are the substance of a healthy economy, the sustainer of families, the lifeblood of our middle-class society.
FDR, when he faced deep and spreading national insecurity, made jobs first — not last. And so should Obama. America has plenty of work that needs doing, work that would strengthen our country for the long haul. It's time for him to launch a long-term, nationwide revitalization effort to rebuild and expand our essential infrastructure (from bridges to water systems) and also to create the framework for a green economy — everything from rapid expansion of renewable energy systems to building high-speed networks that link our population corridors.
As he began his campaign, Obama declared: "I am running because of what Dr. King called 'the fierce urgency of now.' I am running because I believe there's such a thing as being too late."
Yes, there is. So get moving! Grab the urgency of this moment, and turn people's rising anxiety into a new can-do sense of confidence by putting Americans to work. Instead of investing in Wall Street elites, invest in "percolate-up" economics based on ordinary people working to renew and reinvigorate our country at the grassroots level. Now would not be too soon to start.
- Posted in
61 Comments so far
Show AllIn order to create millions of new jobs a line of legislative dominos would need to fall. The failure of even one domino to topple would short-circuit the entire process and doom large scale job creation.
- Our Trade Policies would have to be scrapped. Not gonna happen.
- Our Tax Structure would have to be turned inside out. No chance in heck.
- Our Labor Laws would have to be inverted. Laughably Ridiculous.
- Our Health Care System would need to be human, not profit-centered. Failing as we speak.
- The Defense Budget would have to be cut by half - Not in a warrior-god society.
- The Government would have to abandon its support/protection of old interests: oil, banking, weapons manufacturing, industrial agriculture and embrace the new: clean energy, healthy living, small farming, modern transportation. Keep Dreaming.
Obama lacks the strength, will and desire to accomplish even one of these modest goals. We will not see any significant job creation under his administration.
Not only will we not see an increase in jobs , we will see a continued loss of jobs during Obama's term. We are already being told it is a jobless recovery.
Obama's failure to enact single-payer health care reducing tens of millions of jobs available to young Americans. This is the result of tens of millions of older workers are delaying retirement. Millions of age 50 plus workers are staying in the workforce solely for the employer-based medical insurance. Without single-payer, young Americans will be locked out of those jobs for 5, 10, 15 or more years.
The recent AARP rag had an article about Americans still working at age 100 and assured us that this will become ever more common. That trend will really help the unemployement rate!
Obama doesn't appear to be concerned that many young Americans who voted for him in 2008 will not vote for him in 2012 because they will still be unemployed at that time.
The recent AARP rag had an article about Americans still working at age 100...
-------------
As long as WalMart continues to open new stores they'll need greeters.
Plus make millions from peasant insurance when all those old people kick the can!
"Millions of age 50 plus workers are staying in the workforce solely for the employer-based medical insurance."
Many of those 50+ who have jobs might be, but still others of us are unemployed and desperate. Too young for Social Security and too old to be hired...even temp work is difficult to get and pays only slightly above the minimum wage.
Young people need to understand that a new paradigm was created--by design--as a result of the economic 'meltdown,' one that slashed wages, eliminated benefits, and devasted work environments. Though long-time in the making, the ruined economy proved a viable way to finally put a nail in the coffin of the middle class and echo in a new age of worker slavery. Obama-as-president, of course, is one of the ways this was made palatable and sold to the public.
Demand a livable wage--organize and unionize!
This new paradigm is worse than slavery. At least slave owners feed and shelter their slaves.
Once in the oval office Obama seems to have forgotten where he came from. It didn't take very much time for that to happen did it.
Obama's reversal on single-payer health care and promotion of the bank bailouts during the 2008 campaign were good indications of where he was headed.
Anybody wanna bet that Obama will break more campaign promises during his first year in office than any of his 43 predecessors?
Not to worry. He's a one-termer if there is ANY sanity and courage left in the country. Of course, until then it's time to raise voices and badger the congress critters.
Yeah right.
Can't tell you how cynical I've become, when day in, day out, there is the same old rallying cry to make Obama do it. It is always our fault, ever notice--we either don't do enough, or we are ignorant and stupid.
Could we make Bush do it---do anything? What makes anyone even think that Obama acknowledges we exist? He has made it quite clear that he pays attention and seeks unity with the Right while he views us with contempt--even going as far to recently criticise demonstrators. We did our bit--got him where he wanted--now be content with the occasional crumb thrown that he will tell us to our face, represents reform.
Until then, I have nothing but contempt for polite progressives still stalled at "make me".
Next.
How many welfare jobs can Obama create and for how long? Without the major changes in our society and most of the required changes our mentioned below (Cygnus), we are screwed trying to maintain the status quo. My problem is trying to determine if Obama is a paid political mouth, incompetent leader, or some one just passing time with free room and board. Fortunately the rest of the world is going to dump the dollar at some point in time. When the wealth creator’s stop squealing like stuck pigs, we can really do some neat things. We can produce what is needed and fun without being constrained by a profit margin. If Obama would take some testosterone shots we could start down that path today.
Please don't imply that Obama isn't trying or is incompetent.
When it comes to promoting the interest of Wall Street Obama is the energizer bunny.
Obama responds to those who show him the money !
Obama has no excuse. He is catering to every whim of the MIC, so he cannot claim, and his defenders cannot claim, that the CIA or other nefarious forces will off him if he does something for the poor or the middle class. The bankers and insurance company CEOs are not going to off him. As long as he keeps the MIC happy, and he appears to be doing his best to keep the MIC very happy, he has absolutely no excuse for his complete subservience to the banking and insurance elites. What a bastard he is!
I know several bastards and each greatly dehumanize Obama. Palpatine is a far more apt term to apply to Obama.
Of course, if someone who was the slightest bit interested in freedom and democracy actually made it to the top of the American Empire, of course he'd be killed. duh.
Barack Obama is not that person so don't worry about that happening. He's fine. They have his back.
What about someone like Ralph Nader? If he got 20% of the vote they'd give him first the M&M treatment - Malignment and Marginalization - and if that failed, they'd kill him. Even Congress seems to have no problem signing off on the killing of innocents in Iraq/Afghanistan/Pakistan/Palestine, it would be an easy step to include We the People.
I really don't hold out any "hope" for any politician. The majority of them are their for their own self aggrandizement or legacy.
I have now succumbed to inaction and have begun to prepare myself for the worst that is yet to come. Jobs are non existent. What little I can pick up to keep afloat I do. Matters not what.
As long as we continue to sing the song of Empire which includes supporting militarism and we don't get a handle on overpopulation particularly people whose generational life cycle has become drug dependent we are in for a world of continuing misery. The newspaper every day is full of it.
Cracking this nut? I'm 57, I won't live to see it.
"Meet Debbie Kransky, a striver from America's great middle class who's now struggling. Living in Milwaukee, this intelligent and hard-working 51-year-old was offed by a medical firm in February and has been jobless ever since, despite being constantly on the hunt. Her unemployment benefits have run out, and her small life savings have been depleted.
"I've got October rent," she told a New York Times reporter. "After that, I don't know. I've never lived month to month my entire life. I'm just so scared, I can't even put it in words." "
I've been living month to month since January...it's tough as hell. Good luck to her.
Debbie Kransky
A victim of Bush/Obama, Republicans/Democrats, Congess and the Senate....some responsible for her plight, the others for continuing it.
"I've been living month to month since January...it's tough as hell." Good luck to you! How about moving States? You'd like Austin.
He's working in Washington DC. I'm not sure if Austin beats the Washington DC area when it comes to jobs. Unemployment is low in VA and especially in the Northern VA / DC / MD area which I visit when my company has us going back and forth between Hampton Roads and Washington every few weeks.
Austin doesn't. All young folks headto that area with our ever expanding government I hear, jobs starting around $100,000 is what I saw.
Government expands no matter which party takes power. Just different priorities. I know the GOP priorities but I didn't expect the Democratic priorities to sink this low. If I had to move to Northern Virginia, DC, or MD, I would probably not go past owning a townhouse. Maybe I might be able to afford a full home in the NoVA exurbs but then there's travel issues even worse than what I go through in Hampton Roads alone. I would have to take a look at the actual pay range scale profession to profession. The good news is that it's not as expensive living in the DC area as it is living in NJ, Philly, New York, Boston, and most of the northeast further up. Don't get me started with CA. That state is a lost cause. Government expansion is a perfect spoiler for everyone and the best source of trickle down corruption. I've always heard people in Washington proudly claim that there's always jobs there unless government shuts down for good.
"I've always heard people in Washington proudly claim that there's always jobs there unless government shuts down for good."
There sir, is a tempting thought!
It would take two huge meteorites to make that happen...one to take out the electeds in DC and another to hit NYC and take out the people who own the electeds.
I wonder, if that happened, how many atheists would suddenly believe in God.
We might hold an improved opinion of His aim.
Nah, I love the climate and public transit up here. I'm never leaving unless I have no choice.
Gotcha! But what if we guarantee you endless days of 100+ degrees and we'll work on public transportation??????
Ew, no, I hate hot weather.
Thought not, but we didn't want you to think we wouldn't try our best to make you feel at home.
All the Californians coming in here agree with you! They keep asking....is it always this hot?
Hey, I was on a bus headed north towards Brownsville, TX when the kid in the next seat looked at the bead of sweat hanging on the end of my nose and commented, "Man! You're lucky you didn't come through here when it was hot!"
Great sentiments, and as much as I admire Hightower, I guess he has a pen and paper and might as well write something.
Aren't we supposedly doing the infrastructure and green building with this stimulus?
USA green research $6 B China $600 B
On the bright side New Mexico is putting Solar Power into three major grids.
Is a federal government necessary?
Dear Jim, as a fellow Texan I know you well enough to say that you are wasting your time.
"He asked for it, so let's shove this agenda into his line of vision: jobs. Middle-class jobs. Jobs with a future. Jobs doing useful work that contributes to American progress and the common good. Lots and lots of those jobs."
I would love to shove this agenda that he has totally ignored right up his ...
The one area he should have concentrated on is the one area he has done nothing in. He has flitted all over the world making wonderful speeches that mean nothing, he has wasted the country's time and money on corporate welfare, sub-contracted his leadership to and cooperated with the anti-American leaders of Congress.
Its far too late for this President Jim. Sorry.
Obama was selected as front man. He is doing a magnificent job so far. Without the propaganda machine he would rate single digits in the polls.
The problem with Obama is he is siding with the same interests Bush sided with and living under the delusion that staying the Reagan course would bring back the mythical "boom" of the 1980s. Switching to clean energy will not result in loss of jobs. Switching from private care to single payer will not result in drastic job losses as the Republicans and economic "libertarians" would have you believe. Joining the military will not get you a job when you're done fighting and serving. Obama was supposed to be the next FDR but as others have repeatedly proven on this site, he's a combination of Reagan and Herbert Hoover for the worse. Obama is not fooling anyone by deluding himself into believing that bailing out this too-big-to-fail corporation or another will stimulate job growth.
Another thing that must be stressed is that we must not only pressure Obama on jobs but we must also pressure our local and state politicians as well. There is a good chance that Obama will get it right when our local and state officials get it right and team up with their constituents and use their given powers to pressure Congress and the White House.
Check out Yes! Magazine's issue on the economy, I've been reading it since Sunday and it's fantastic, especially the sections that deal with creating and strengthening local economies. http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/the-new-economy
Excellent magazine and I would be happy to share this with my wife. Having glanced at it, I wonder if those people writing have taken queues from a lot of commentators on this site calling for local jobs and local growth. Seriously, I always thought that no matter who won last year's election, this was going to happen and in some ways, there is a limit on what the president can do to change the direction of job growth in this nation. True, he has failed to provide the proper push where he had his chance but it was and still is inevitable that there would be a switch to go back to local and try to slow down the outsourcing. There are textbooks on project management that are beginning to acknowledge the costs of outsourcing and the responsibilities of project managers and their contracting vendors involved. Not only have I not given up putting pressure on local and state officials and their staffers but I have taken the opportunities to divert projects away from too much military without waking up that sleeping giant to using the funding to work with local business customers and give them a helping hand. Our communities cannot afford to keep piling on unemployment even if the overall state economy isn't doing so poorly.
Thank you for that link. Excellent stuff there and it happens to be inline with a lot of what I have come to believe of late. The article on the Indigenous peoples and how they dealt with the distribution of wealth is something I have long felt we should move BACK towards.
I would have no problems were Canada to return to its Aboriginal roots and adopt many of their belief systems.
Incredibly, (Obama) tried for a while to rationalize his "banker-first" Wall Street bailout as a jobs stimulus! The argument went like this: rescuing failed bankers might induce them to make loans to corporations, which then might increase corporate production, which then might cause corporate executives to hire some Americans . . .
This was just one more foot soldier in Obama's Army of Lies.
Shortly before Obama got elected he said he was going to "create 3 million new green jobs." I wrote this quote down while considering that it was just another absolutely unfillable promise from someone trying to get elected. God I hate being right.
So, how do I hold him to his promise (powerful constituent that I am), call the White House switchboard? I'll get a recorded message saying, "Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, . . ."
Hope I didn't double post on this.
By the way, the possessive case of "country" is "country's."
"God I hate being right."
By golly, we hate for you to be right too.
OK, OK...I changed it and I'll try to remember....what was it I was trying to remember?(lol)
In NYC, Mayor Bloomberg and Al Gore are partnering to create some green VOLUNTEER jobs -- no one will be paid for their work. I can tell you that I am NOT impressed.
At last count, NYC has 1.5 million unemployed people, or, at least, that's what I read. Volunteering is the answer? All that means is that more of us will be out sitting on the curb!
I can't help but feel that those in charge simply don't care!
Sioux Rose
Maybe the Wall St clique, with their self-appointed mega-bonuses can throw coins at these volunteers? It's coming to that, a whole new form of "trickle down" economics, or the rich inventing ways to enrich themselves on everyone else's labors.
I see it as the return of the ancient pharaohs, this time disguised as corporations.
As things get worse, the ones who won will begin to feel a trifle guilty. Don't you think we'll start to see more money to charity, like the Greenjobs Corps volunteers?
Sorry, JH, but you've done what so many have before you:
Ya told us the problem - jobs. Ya told us to demand BO 'create' jobs.
But ya didn't mention exactly how BO - or anybody - can 'create' jobs in a country that no longer manufactures much of anything, and at least 2 generations of Americans who wouldn't step foot in a factory for any amount of money.
A few temp shovel-readies and 'green' jobs ain't gonna cut it.
Here's the truth: there is simply no way to 'create' the 18 million+ jobs we needed yesterday, and, of course, "career creation" isn't even discussed anymore (if ya can't 'create' jobs, how can ya create careers?)
But let's keep playing the 'demand more jobs from the government' game until we got, say, 50-60 million homeless and unemployed. Then, maybe, we'll start to embrace reality and adjust accordingly...
Its easy to create jobs...you simply recverse the tax and trade policuies that destroyed a lot of our manufacturing base. Its not rocket science. Thats why we know about this Congress and this President.
Government doesn't create jobs, but they can sure destroy them.
Not right wing. Fine with me.
What's not right wing?
As of today the Dow Jones went over 10000. Total Nonsense. Nobody is buyng this mirage on Wall Street. Right now Obama and his cronies Axelrod, Emmanual, Clinton, could care less about working people's problems. Obama is just running the same script as G.W. Bush did in 2002-2003. Inflate the markets, hit hard on the terrorism and hope to get past 2012. WILL NOT HAPPEN.
Sorry, Jim. Obama's doing what he was hired to do, and he said it himself to the bankers: "I'm all that's standing between you and the pitchforks".
When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson
"OK, let's have it: ... jobs."
OK, Jim, how?
Let's mention a few ideas we should not do, since they seem to be the common responses.
* We don't need to buy more plastic tripe.
* We don't need to buy on credit.
We need public transport.
So, do any individuals have $$ in their pocket to fund that?
We need green housing.
To some extent some part of the private sector can do that individually, though the laws in most regions seem dead set against it.
You know, the US population has just suffered 2 multi-hundred-billion-dollar thefts beyond the usual - and that doesn't even begin to describe the ongoing military budget.
We need to hunker down and get ready to help each other eat and stay housed. We need to quit buying gewgaws from the globalized economy.
That might not make for a lot of middle-class jobs, though.
Nah. The "stimulus" thing has to come from government. But they're just feathering their nests again.