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Forget the Deficit; People Need Jobs
The state of America's union is stark. The economic collapse triggered by the bursting of the housing bubble continues to take its toll.
We know the statistics. Nearly one in five American workers is unemployed or underemployed. That means wages are losing ground. One in three homes with a mortgage is under water. Millions of Americans are headed to losing their homes.
That will leave families adrift, children displaced.
The desperate effort to keep the financial system from failing has succeeded. It has saved the big banks -- leaving them more concentrated than ever -- but not succeeded in removing the clot in financing. Small businesses can't get loans; homeowners can't get mortgages adjusted. Finance is like the blood of the economy. When there is a clot, the economy can't work and people suffer.
Republicans argue that the president's recovery plan has failed. Then they prescribe the same poison that created the breakdown in the first place. They want more top-end tax cuts, more breaks for business, more deregulation. We tried tax cuts under Bush; it leads nowhere.
The reality is that the recovery plan created or saved millions of jobs. Aid to states and localities kept teachers and police from being laid off in large numbers. Spending on infrastructure helped put some to work. Investment in new energy created new jobs. Aid to the unemployed -- extending unemployment benefits, subsidizing health care COBRA payments, and providing food stamps -- put money into the pockets of those who need it most.
The problem with the president's plan -- as any honest economist will tell you -- is that it wasn't big enough. The collapse was far deeper than the president's economists predicted.
We need another big jobs program. Aid should go to states and localities that now face brutal cuts that will lay off teachers, police and professors. Public jobs programs -- a green corps, an urban corps -- should target hard-hit areas like the Midwest and urban centers. We should invest in infrastructure by repairing schools, weatherizing public buildings and creating the projects that will hire construction workers.
Without these commitments, there will be no recovery. Businesses won't expand into an economy in which one in five people are unemployed. Exports won't increase -- particularly with the Chinese continuing to manipulate their currency. Consumers have taken a $10 trillion hit on assets, and are tightening their belts. States and localities are facing brutal cuts.
People are confused and angry. They see high deficits and think the money is going to Wall Street. There is a crisis of confidence as well as a grinding fear of what comes next.
Here we need the president to lead and take on the naysayers and the false leaders. He must lay out what needs to be done, and rally the country to act.
The pollsters say independents are angry about deficits, so Washington is talking about deficit reduction. "If we expect families to balance their budgets in hard times, shouldn't the government do so also?" goes the mantra.
That is the big lie because, in reality, when everyone else is cutting back, government must step in and put people to work. This will require deficits because tax revenues are down and expenditures on unemployment and food stamps are up.
The simple fact is, you can't balance the budget without generating economic growth. Any attempt to do so now will deepen the downturn. Once people go back to work, and the economy gets going, tax revenues will go up, emergency spending will decline and steps can be taken to bring the deficit down. But it is utter foolishness to do so before people are at work.
That's why the State of the Union is so important. It is vital that the president use this moment to set the direction, to rally the country, to take on the naysayers and to call this country to move forward.
- Posted in
47 Comments so far
Show AllPresident Obama will announce a three-year freeze on non-Pentagon, non-Homeland Security spending. AND he will announce a jobs program that will be too little to be effective for those who are too small to matter. Meanwhile those banks which are too big to fail, continue to hold favor with Obama's economic team of pro-corporate advisors.
The difference between Reverend Jackson and President Obama is this: Jackson cares about regular people and advocates for policies to help them. In contrast, President Obama cares about the powerful, and advocates for policies to help THEM, while showing the appearance of helping regular people. Jackson wants to help Main Street, your street, and my street, while Obama wants to maintain Wall Street.
We need a movement in reference to this situation: support a primary challenge to Obama in 2012. Let's remove him from office.
Unfortunately the media has been painting Jesse as a radical leftist for decades.
Remember that since the Red Scare of the 1950's, the US has moved so far to the right that anything approaching the center and moves just beyond that towards social democracy, looks to the majority of Americans as "radical leftist".
Get ready for the end of Social Security. That's what this is all about.
While Bernanke, Summers and Geithner continue advancing the neo-liberal prescriptions which led to the current crisis, Van Jones, the Green Jobs champion was ousted from the Obama Administration.
Absolutely we need a Federal Revenue sharing plan to prevent State and local governments from further cuts sending us from
Great Recession into a second Great Depression.
But most importantly we need to divert billions from the 1,000 military bases and 234 Pentagon golf courses overseas to
invest in the new Green Economy at home.
The first place to invest is to support mass transit operations which have been cut in over 100 communities and then use the rails and buses we already have before expanding transit systems wherever possible.
70% of US oil usage goes to cars and trucks which account for over 30% of greenhouse emissions. Oil imports account for over 30% of our trade imbalance. If we can divert 10%
of auto trips to mass transit it saves oil, greenhouse emissions and trade imbalance for pennies.
This is easily achievable - in 2008 mass transit increased
5-10% while auto mileage decreased 6% despite transit service cuts all over the US.
New Jersey Transit is an excellent example of how cheap mass transit operations are - it only cost New Jersey $300 Million
for all its trains and buses yet they provided 328 passenger trips - i.e.less than $1 for trips, many of them for 20 miles or more!
Smart Growth America and US PIRGS just release a study of stimulus funding which showed that investment in public transit created twice the number of jobs as highways.
http://t4america.org/blog/2010/01/05/sga-analysis-reveals-transportation-projects-create-the-most-jobs-at-the-lowest-cost/
But first, the cheapest thing is to run the trains, buses and vans we already have at least hourly or more. This will create PERMANENT jobs for engineers, conductors, drivers.
Then expand further on existing rails and rights of way, down the middle of highways ....
Besides increasing jobs this will save us billions in oil costs.
No wonder when Obama was shown the Oval office he chose to keep it exactly the way GW BV$H had it yellow rug, desk, pictures on the wall. Why change anything since he was just going to do the same BS anyway. Did we all vote for MORE OF THE SAME? Wasn't the election about how great things are so we should just follow the policies of the people that got us here? What a lying sack of shit Obama is.
Sure, blame it on the rug!
Apt, really.
Obama lies like a rug.
And when facing a possible challenge, his belly's yellow.
Bye bye, Miss American Pie. Bye bye, America.
I like all the suggestions below; job corps, money to the most besieged areas, public jobs, mass transit and removing Obama. But will we see these ideas happening with the Corporate Congress firmly in place? And Barak with all that corporate money for his re-election.
We need to usurp the standing members with new and progressive faces. We need a new set of goals, stating with jobs and relief for homeowners. We need... a lot and we won't get it with the present bunch of corrupt fools.
Throw the rascals (and President rascal) out!
Gary
PS BTW I am suggesting the name "The People" ("The People Party") for a new unity party to bring together the dozen or so "third-parties" that better represent the actual positions of the American people than the present duopoly. Imagine campaigning for "The People."
"Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself."
-- Mark Twain
Oh, come on. The U.S. already has an excellent jobs program. It is called military enlistment.
IMHO the jobs issue in this country is broken at such a fundamental level that a government jobs program is not going to fix anything long term. We have made it too easy for companies to offshore and outsource jobs so there is absolutely no incentive for them to create jobs in this country anymore.
Any government jobs program will only help as long as it is actively funded. Once it stops unemployment will continue it's upward climb. Laws have to be changed to make creating jobs in this country attractive and offshoring/outsourcing jobs painful.
Not only are we outsourcing manufacturing jobs, and Information Technology jobs, but in many cases your tax returns, medical diagnoses, and even some legal work is done off shore. Basically unless something has to be done in this country because of physical restraints, it will be done offshore
Things have gotten so bad that Walmart is outsourcing the jobs of people that hand out free samples at their Sams Club stores. Seriously think about that for a minute...
NC-Tom January 26th, 2010 9:20 am "We have made it too easy for companies to offshore and outsource jobs so there is absolutely no incentive for them to create jobs in this country anymore."
This is the crux of the problem, but as I take a deeper look into the practice of sending our jobs away something of a more sinister nature emerges. I hate to be labled a "conspiracy nut" but something is horribly wrong. Why has it been made so easy to rid America of her employment opportunities? Why hasn't the loss been stemmed in any way? Why is there no dialogue that even mentions turning the tide? Is something else going on here? Is the demise of America the final goal? And if so, what is planned to replace it? I used to think it was nothing more than greedy businessmen. Now, I'm not so sure.
Silent Spring - Rachel Carson...
It is hard not to think there is some conspiracy going on. Almost at every level of government you hear politicians talk about the need to create jobs while industry is offshoring/outsourcing them as fast as they can. We recently moved to NC and in the year we have been down here factories have been closing and heading offshore at an alarming rate. And as this goes on the governor it putting a task force together on how to create jobs in NC. WTF, is this woman a liar or a fool? It is very clear what is going on, offshoring/outsourcing is the 10,000 lb pink elephant in the room that almost none of the politicians want to talk about.
Is the plan to destroy the middle class, so we can have the s^it scared out of us so the last push to Fascism can be made? I don't know for sure but it sure does feel like wizards are doing something disturbing behind that big proverbial curtain.
I wish Jackson had elaborated on his experience with O-man during the '08 campaign. Possibly he could have shifted enough support away to save us from this nightmare.
Oh, I forgot. The others were all nightmares too......
Several switches would simultaneously need to be turned to the "ON" position in order for genuine job creation to take place.
1) All our trade agreements would have to be shredded. As long as corporations can search the globe for the cheapest labor there's absolutely no reason for them to keep jobs in the U.S.
2) Our tax policy would have to be flipped from regressive to progressive. In the absence of a strong middle-class, made possible by low middle-class tax rates, with the bulk of taxes being paid by the super-wealthy, there cannot be a healthy, job producing economy. Prosperity flows from the bottom up.
3) Strong Pro-labor policy would have to be passed. EFCA needs to get through intact.
4) Trading of unnecessary and complex derivatives would have to be outlawed as these suck too much money out of the productive economy.
5) Defense budget needs to be cut in half, immediately. Again, this is an unproductive part of the economy that draws the life out of all other sectors of job creation.
Unless ALL of these switches are turned "ON" any job creation will be temporary and weak.
There's ZERO evidence that Obama plans to enact even ONE of these measures.
Cygnus-X1-isaHole
Congratulations! You are absolutely correct and Jackson is obviously wrong. Money already spent did nothing to provide jobs. Without real jobs, lasting jobs, its just more spending for your friends policies.
"5) Defense budget needs to be cut in half, immediately. Again, this is an unproductive part of the economy that draws the life out of all other sectors of job creation."
The two areas where we have a slight disagreement on one and absolute on the other.
A. Because of Obama's refusal to withdraw our troops, I don't believe you can cut the military budget more than 15% without running into serious trouble. Get out of Iraq and even if he insists on staying in Afghanistan, next year you could easily trim another 15%. Especially if you stop the insidous practice of private contractors. Neither conflict...you could cut it 35-40% immediately and have a stronger military.
B. You are SO RIGHT on 1 and 2 I'd even agree to 3 which I absolutely oppose because it is a step back for freedom. I'd substitute a strong industrial policy with strong work rules included in the legislation.
Obama will do nothing. But Congress we can move. Will move.
Maybe cutting the DoD budget by 15% would cause serious trouble, but I doubt it. But, I am certain that cutting the DoD budget to "only" 15% of its present value would prevent a lot of serious trouble. Why? The money would more likely be spent on defense, instead of inciting people to attack US people.
It's not that I don't agree with most of what Jesse Jackson said, and I was a delegate for him to the Texas State Democratic Party Convention in 1988, nor with Cygnux's comments either, but, "1) All our trade agreements would have to be shredded. As long as corporations can search the globe for the cheapest labor there's absolutely no reason for them to keep jobs in the U.S."
I would like to take exception with this comment. Corporations are not ome kind of passive entity searching for low paying wage locations like some blip on the radar. No, the corporations demand low wages or they won't come or they threaten to pull out. A few years ago China passed a labor law, but a funny thing happened on the road to enforcement. It was the corporations who screamed the loudest and prevented it from being enforced.
Considering that the US does so much more than any other country to get the advantage, "manipulating currency" (if in fact that is what China is doing) is pretty tame compared to occupying armies, international commodities such as oil, and debt repayments that all have to be paid in dollars.
It is great that the US should use its funds to create jobs and bolster the home economy. When other countries try to do that for their own people, the US government doesn't seem to like it. Just ask Hugo Chavez
Corporations are not ome kind of passive entity searching for low paying wage locations like some blip on the radar. No, the corporations demand low wages or they won't come or they threaten to pull out.
--------------
I'd like to see our trade agreements rewritten to permit trade only with nations that have worker, health and environmental rights.
Hear, hear!
>>Perhaps the most critical piece of a clean economic-development strategy is a massive federal investment in research and infrastructure. Green jobs will largely come from the private sector, but currently not all renewable energy is financially competitive with cheap fossil fuels like coal. It will be up to the government to tilt the balance. That’s why green-job advocates eagerly followed President Obama’s stimulus legislation as it progressed through Congress last winter. Many were pleased by the results. By the Center for American Progress’s middle-of-the-road calculation, the $789 billion package includes $71 billion in spending on clean energy projects and $20 billion in tax incentives for projects that benefit the environment.
“It is actually the largest single topical component of the stimulus package,” Kammen notes. “This in itself is remarkable, and is more than then-candidate Obama called for.”
A good chunk of the money goes to energy efficiency, including $5 billion to weatherize houses, $4.5 billion to renovate federal buildings, and $6.3 billion in grants to state and local governments. The bill also includes $17.7 billion for transit and rail construction, $11 billion to modernize the electric grid, and $6 billion in loan guarantees for renewable-energy projects. It sets aside $500 million for green-job training. It funds research into renewables, efficiency, automobile batteries, and carbon sequestration. Obama says the stimulus will double the nation’s renewable-energy generating capacity over the next three years.<<
--Barry Yeoman, "Green-Collar Work Plan," Audubon in Utne Reader:
http://www.utne.com/Environment/Green-Collar-Work-Plan-Environment.aspx
Go Green.
Gary
"We shall never understand the natural environment until we see it as a living organism. Land can be healthy or sick, fertile or barren, rich or poor, lovingly nurtured or bled white. Our present attitudes and laws governing the ownership and use of land represent an abuse of the concept of private property.,.. Today you can murder land for private profit. You can leave the corpse for all to see and nobody calls the cops."
-- Paul Brooks, The Pursuit of Wilderness (1971)
Now I watched CNN last night wherein they had three pundits try and determine whether the "stimulus" had worked.
While 2 of the three agreed it had and that the American economy was turned around and everything was now rosy, the third claimed that the Stimulus had a marginal effect and that the boom to come was due to the "Natural Business cycle".
The recession is over, the high paying jobs are on their way!
Yes, with NAFTA, CAFTA and China trade policy firmly intact I'm sure it'll be any minute now that all those jobs return.
Cygnus-X1-isaHole
What you said.
GwNorth
Do you think I could get some of those pundits to work that same magical cure on our mortgage?
I work in a federally funded Workforce Center. We've received millions of dollars in federal "stimulus" funding and have been told to spend it on training for future green jobs, etc. Problem? There aren't any. Oh, a few solar panel companies. A few, (make that one), wind turbine companies. Everything has dried up. With regualr Workforce Investment Act money, we're training nurses and respiratory therapists, electricians, over the road truck drivers, and computer specialists. But, where are they going to find work??? We see people everyday who have been out of work for well over a year with no hope in sight. People desperate to do anything. It's galling that there's nothing, NOTHING coming out of Washington that will even begin to alleviate the problem. Recession over??? Maybe. Just in time for the true depression to set in.
I don't know what state you work in, blythespirit, but in Pennsylvania the Labor & Industry agency was called "Job Service"-- then, around the time "Homeland" became popular, it changed to "Workforce Development".
Your comment reminded me of a period when I was part of a state unemployment agency "Rapid Response" team. We conducted information sessions for large groups of soon-to-be-unemployed workers in the Philly, PA area-- from US Steel in Langhorne to the Naval Shipyard in South Philly.
I was on the "benefits" side, giving a fairly cut-and-dried presentation and conducting a Q&A about unemployment claims. But the "Employment Service" reps, who traditionally worked in unemployment offices to place claimants in new jobs, were there to offer a more "motivational" perspective.
One woman really took this role seriously, and had a natural "preaching" style. I really think she was (is) good-hearted and meant well.
But her shtick was to try and "sell" career steelworkers or shipyard workers on the Brave New World of a changing economy. The short-term goal was to encourage these workers to enroll in training-- not to "build upon" existing job skills in a vanishing manufacturing base, but to acquire New and PORTABLE Skill-Sets.
I recall her making statements like, "'My' steelworkers in Pittsburgh are now health-care workers, computer technicians, etc." Well, OK.
Beyond this, however, the Job Service reps explained that the "old" idea of working for a single employer for a lifetime was a thing of the past. Now, those joining the workforce would be best served by acquiring Portable Skill Sets that would enable them to achieve as sort of "serial" career. (They didn't call it that.)
In this Brave New World, it was a given that jobs were transient and of limited duration. Workers would instead be like birds, flying to the next tree as soon as the one they were nesting in either collapsed, or kicked them out.
"My 24-year old daughter has already worked for three different companies!", the rep would note. "That's how working life IS for this generation."
Thus, the New Age worker would permanently cultivate a habit of self-promotion-- keep that résumé updated, be vigilant for new opportunities, stay "agile" in the knowledge that job-seeking is a permanent condition. Not to mention developing long-term "self-reliance" by using individual retirement financial options instead of counting on a company pension.
Funny-- I'm sure the issue of health care in the Brave New World was raised, but I don't remember the official explanation for how "agile" workers jumping from job to job would manage it. I guess the assumption was that even transient jobs would still offer heath benefits.
Since most of the groups we talked to were pretty much stunned and disgusted by their predicament, they mostly just listened politely. Since I heard this pitch over and over, it became increasingly hollow and painful.
It sounded exactly like one of those approaches that sounds viable in theory, perhaps, but makes for an exhausting and crushing "lifestyle": a game of Musical Chairs that never stops.
I know a few-- OK, two-- people who strike me as naturally programmed for this type of "serial employment", but who've done this voluntarily. One is an administrator who's worked in the geriatric care sector; she changes jobs about once a year, seemingly effortlessly. It strikes me as very much an artifact of their temperament-- they really LIKE job-jumping, for whatever reason. More power to them.
And a few years after the Rapid Responses, Job Service was tasked with still another joint program with the state welfare agency to run a new "re-employment" program theoretically mandating ALL "employable" recipients to be placed in jobs. And there were criteria to supposedly guarantee that these were real jobs paying a living wage AND benefits.
When I attended the initial intensive training, the rank-and-file Job Service workers statewide kept asking, "Where are all these jobs going to come from?" The administrators kept assuring the workers that this would not be a problem.
I transferred to another department shortly afterwards, but my impression is that, exactly as the JS workers predicted, the wheels fell off the program due to a lack of suitable jobs-- but the welfare recipients were still made to jump through the hoops.
· Yr Obd't Servant
I'm in Colorado right now and the only jobs moving into the area are call centers and, as I stated above, a couple of "green" opportunities for a chosen few.
When I was in Maine I worked for Maine DOL (mid 1990's through 2006) and was, in addition to Unemployment adjucator, the Rapid Response presenter for all of Southern Maine.
In Maine--shoe industry moving overseas, paper mills closing, textiles gone, pretty much anything that had held the State together was leaving. Your comments sum it all up brilliantly. At the time I felt unhappy that I had to give the nuts and bolts of Unemployment talk and the Career Center people got to have all the feel good stuff. After reading your comments, I recognize just how wrong I was. At that stage in their lives, pretty much nothing is "feel good." The situation has done nothing but worsen.
All of the buzz words you so used are still in use and still just as ridiculous. "Portable skills," yack! The "perfect, tight resume." "What employer's are looking for...." as if anyone really knows. It's all a crock and we're expected to sell it everyday. I know that we provide many people with hope and hope can be a desperately needed commodity. But, hope alone won't feed a family. Hope won't save your home.
Colorado Springs is a military town so we're also dealing with a huge influx of damaged soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Many of them with physical impairments. Many, many more returning with psychological trauma, close head injuries and a myriad of other mental health issues. They're looking for work, too, and things can become volatile when their expectations are met with nothing. Nothing is just about all we have to offer at this point.
I think I need to find a new job myself. A commune sounds like a good choice.....
Wow! This is the first time in many, many moons of commenting that I ran into a fellow state unemployment worker-- a Rapid Response provider, no less. Small labor market!
I am delighted by your informative and validating response. 8)
· Yr Obd't Servant
Right back at you!!!
Jesse Jackson writes:
"The desperate effort to keep the financial system from failing has succeeded."
Oh, Reverend, come on. You gotta break with this charlatan, whatEVER birthday suit he's in.
A heck of a lot of the people who are suffering are POOR people, unmentioned by Obama, or here by Jesse.
Break with these people, Jesse. You're about the only leader left standing.
I worked my butt off for Jesse Jackson in 1988. I could just cry.
Jackson wrote: 'Aid should go to states and localities that now face brutal cuts that will lay off teachers, police and professors. Public jobs programs -- a green corps, an urban corps -- should target hard-hit areas like the Midwest and urban centers. We should invest in infrastructure by repairing schools, weatherizing public buildings and creating the projects that will hire construction workers.'
Couple of things I saw here in Sacramento (at least 12.4% unemployed. I think the actual number of civilians unemployed is much higher because of the greater number of State employees here) was stimulus money went to State employees, not regular citizens. They also 'repaired' 'T' Street in Midtown and even the shopowners said that there was nothing wrong with it beforehand. The construction workers on it were City employees and then only a handful were needed to run the equipment.
The stimulus money was used to the benefit of Federal, State and City workers, not us.
people don't need jobs, people need natural resources...land, air, water, food and shelter...
a job, or, rather, money, however gained, is the only mechanism our current society offers for securing these things, due to the privatization (read: theft and control) of land...
free the land, free the people...let the sustenance of one and one's own be one's 'job'...
Global Start Date: September 22, 2012...cessation of property ownership, industry and electricity use...acoustic, agrarian living...local governance and defense...
Thanks, dubet. You hit the root of the issue.
Jesse,
He's lying.
Have a nice day.
Rainbow racket, rainbow noise.
the problem is you can't just plug people into jobs. Fix schools? You will need skilled labor. Sure you can use a few "gophers" but you can't just turn a person into an electrician, mason, carpenter or plumber overnight. The real problem is we have a large LAZY and UN-EDUCATED class of people in this country and the jobs they qualify for are going to immigrants. you can't just say "Jobs" and it will happen.
Jesse Jackson is a Democrat and like most Democrats he will speak for Obama. Notice the double standards Jackson gives away. Jackson complains about Bush's tax cuts which I agree with but he says nothing about the equally foolish stimulus package Obama rushed through Congress last year and signed into law. That plan contained very little for domestic spending but more wasteful tax cutting for the very rich with a few scraps to throw for the poor. Jackson complains that people are angry that Obama is giving away money to Wall Street but that is exactly what Obama is doing and it is not unpatriotic to call out Obama for doing so. Jesse Jackson may have problems with Bush and the Republicans and I share that outrage but there is no excuse to condone Democrats doing likewise. Jesse Jackson is correct that more jobs and better ones will be needed to stimulate the economy of Main Street. Jackson gets it wrong when he mixes up deficits with jobs creation. Deficits don't come from creating jobs. Deficits come from throwing money excessively rather than making each bang for each buck government spends. Tax revenues can go up and then suddenly government will take that money and throw at the war machine, to bail out the greedy CEOs, or to subsidize harmful corporate giants who don't need any more subsidization to sustain. Finally, Jackson is completely foolish to suggest that a state of the union speech will set the direction straight. Obama can give a great speech but his actions and his support of the Congress critters will remain louder than what he said before and what he says now.
Forget Jesse Jackson--and whoever gives him the thoughts that he writes--Jackson is nothing more than another mouthpiece-for-hire pundit.
Poet
"The simple fact is, you can't balance the budget without generating economic growth. Any attempt to do so now will deepen the downturn."
Seems to me that economic growth, population growth, growth of the MIC, of pollution, of species extinctions, of energy demand, of plagues, famine, deforestation, global warming, war and every other kind of endless growth is the cancer consuming the host, planet earth and its inhabitants.
The stimulus package of 2008, 2009 and the tax break of 2007 have shown minimal effect on the economy. Now, in 2009, a stimulus package (like the 2007 tax break) has been passed which will most likely impact the economy as poorly as the previous attempts.
In history, the Oklahoma land rush of 1893 is a perfect example of what our economy needs. The land rush happened during a terrible depression and the positive impact was immediate. New farmers (land owners) needed building materials, farming equipment, and all the other necessities of running a farm. The whole economy bloomed due to this need to stimulate these new farms (businesses).
Now, in 2010, instead of wasting 500 billion dollars (what left of 790 billions), the money should be cut into larger portions (like 1 million) and given to individuals (any citizen over 18) as a business grant.
These business grants would consist of 1 million dollars each (so roughly 500,000 individuals would acquire this money) handed out lottery style to potential business owners. These citizens would be required to open up non-franchised, new business in order to stimulate their local economies.
All these business owners will need a lot to rent, equipment, staff, and merchandise to either sell or produce. This will not only help the business owner his or herself but also all those businesses around them. This will generate (within a few weeks) at least 3-5 million new jobs. The IRS will be in charge of watching the spending of these grants and assuring that the money is used properly.
A plan like this will require faith in people that can create their own destiny and deserve the opportunity. By labeling society as unable to do anything other than spend and consume the society itself becoming nothing more than an image of what it is being labeled as. Society needs hope for a better future and the opportunity to grove.
Trickle down economy (economists) (leftovers from rich people table (Wall Street, Banks etc)) will not create a single job.
When you unemployed and hungry, try to eat your Tax Break, try to pay your Mortgage or utility bill with Tax Break.
I sent this message to President and all Senators. If you agree with this message, please send it to President and all Senate/Congress.
Yes Wall Street has got all too much financing by Main Street through US taxpayers' dollars which should be going to main street, and the time is now.
AD
As a past small buisness owner, I can say if you want the economy to come back, lower taxes, eliminate un-needed government regulations, and give small buisness owners some relief from lawsuits.