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Unemployment Not Just a Problem for Returning Veterans
It is hard to disagree with President Obama when he tells us it is wrong for returning veterans to be unable to find work. Even Senate Republicans went along with his proposal to give tax credits to companies that hire unemployed veterans.
Still, this kind of rhetoric and legislation should make us all very uneasy. Although it sounds good in Veteran’s Day oratory, it smacks too much of telling us that the wrong people are unemployed.
Government should not be in the business of deciding who should be employed and who should not be employed. Nor should anybody else be in that business. In a full-employment economy, veterans, like everyone else, would be able to find jobs.
We often hear laments that older people, young people, and members of racial minorities suffer from higher unemployment than do middle-aged non-minority people, which again takes the existence of unemployment as a given and suggests it should be distributed more equitably.
There is nothing in the structure of the physical or social universes that requires the existence of unemployment. During World War II the United States not only had no unemployment but it actually had a labor shortage. And the amazing results? Women (“Rosie the riveter”) and black people suddenly found themselves hired to do work that had previously been denied them. (The shortage of workers, aggravated because employers were not allowed to raise wages to attracted needed labor, led employers to offer fringe benefits like medical insurance, which the government did not count as wage increases.)
During the heyday of the Soviet Union, likewise, there was also a shortage of labor instead of unemployment, because state-run factories and farms (and that was all there was) were not allowed to raise wages to the point where the demand for labor would have fallen to be equal to the supply. The notorious Gulag Archipelago, or system of concentration camps, functioned as a kind of civilian draft to get needed labor for difficult projects in unpleasant parts of the U.S.S.R.
There are several ways the U.S. could assure full employment without the unpleasantness of a war or Soviet-style economy. Small decreases in average wages could bring the demand for labor into equilibrium with the number of people seeking work, as was the case in World War II America and in the Soviet Union. If measures need to accomplish this are politically unpalatable, the government could become the employer of last resort, guaranteeing everyone a job at the legal minimum wage, modified versions of the WPA/CCC programs of Franklin D. Roosevelt, but on a larger scale. The costs of doing this would not be out of line with what we have lately been spending on ineffective “stimulus” programs.
Whether we supported or opposed the wars they have been fighting, we can only wish returning veterans the best. But we can wish no less for all other Americans. It is time to stop talking about reducing unemployment and to start talking about eliminating it.
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18 Comments so far
Show AllI would have liked very much for the author to address how he proposes to achieve a full employment economy with the profit motive in place.
One of the roots of the vet unemployment problem is that most of the vets are young Americans who fall in the same demographic as other young Americans who are experiencing the absolute highest unemployment rate of any age group.
The author doesn't mention that one of the main drivers of high unemployment among young Americans is the millions of older workers who are delaying or cancelling retirement solely to keep their relatively affordable employer sponsored medical insurance, thereby keeping their jobs from opening up for young workers.
Obama's super secret catfood committee's upcoming Social Security cuts, Medicare cuts, Medicaid cuts and other domestic program cuts will result in an ever growing number of older workers who cancel retirement, shutting off more job opportunities for young Americans. In 2014 when Obamacare kicks in, even more older workers will cancel retirement, further diminishing job opportunities for vets and other young Americans.
" ..... one of the main drivers of high unemployment among young Americans is the millions of older workers who are delaying or cancelling retirement solely to keep their relatively affordable employer sponsored medical insurance ....."
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Are you suggesting that older people don't really need to work if they had access to adequate and affordable health care? You do know that most people between 50 & 65 years old are nowhere near able to afford to retire, and could literally not survive without additional income from a job, even if they had free health care. Right?
Dear Sir:
Maybe I missed something.
" Small decreases in average wages could bring the demand for labor into equilibrium with the number of people seeking work......."
You want US Families to take even a smaller pay check home? For what?!!! To make the corporations even happier..!@#$%^&*()(*&^%$#@!~!
But didn't you get the rest of it? In order to get more employees, the businesses started offering perks like medical care. I haven't been able to find a job with health care benefits for six years. I...and I think a lot of others...would take a small cut to get medical coverage.
I think this is another view on two issues: First, we CAN bring unemployment to zero because we have, and, second, there are some really creative sollutions out there. Let's bring them all in.
Taking employers out of the US heathcare system would increase the number of successful small businesses, thereby increasing the number of jobs. Employer-based medical insurance is part of the problem, not the solution.
Obamacare makes medical insurance MORE employer-centric, thereby exacerbating the unemployment problem for vets and other young Americans.
Have you seen the TV commercial from Chase Bank? They claim to be on a mission to get hundreds of thousands of veterans employed. Meanwhile, they are job-cutting their own employees. I wonder if they're making the same job-finding efforts for them? ..................Sorry, but when I hear things like this, it makes me wonder what self-serving motives are entagled in their mission.
Chase and other banks need to keep their propaganda machines humming to assure that voters continue to vote for the politicians that provide serial corporate welfare programs for Chase and other too-big-to-fail banks.
"It is hard to disagree with President Obama when he tells us it is wrong for returning veterans to be unable to find work."
Mainly because quite a few of them wouldn't even have gone away if they had work. But anyway, another idiotic article from some liberal (pseudo)intellectual that misses all the points that are possible to miss.
A deception.
As has been pointed out, more money has been taken by banks--like the 58-75 Trillion in toxic debt now insured by the FDIC from B of A--all by itself dwarfs all the money ever spent since the founding of the country, including all its wars...and this does not count the trillions that were missing from the Pentagon (discovered in 2001 and announced--get ready--on Sept 10--go see for yourself, it was Rumsfeld who admitted it) to the multiple trillions in the bail-outs and interest-free loans--
The current money system is rigged like a SAW trap (never saw any of them, but I know the basic premise of the madman Jigsaw)...if the banks are allowed to go bust, all those pension funds will implode as well, as they are heavily invested in bubble paper--
What politician has the guts to be at the helm when that ship goes down, as it must--and already is?
Until we wrest control (or they hand it over, nicely wrapped and delivered by a complimentary masseuse/masseur and a collection of fine organic oils) from those that buy the planet many times over and tell us there is no home, no food, no school, no safety, no health....for anyone but they to whom all assets ultimately flow--
Articles such as this entwine to weave the Curtain at Oz.
Well said. In my view, what your post reflects IS the central issue of what fiscally ails U.S... the rest is smoke and mirrors, and/or offering crumbs to one demographic to insure that the homeless & hungry fight among themselves. What a game plan!
If memory serves (never a wise assumption as I get older) when the GIs returned to civilian life the women who had been doing the maual labor were bumped out of their jobs to make way for the 'men' and so became the stay at home Mom's of the 1950s ever imortalised in Ozzie and Harriet types of comedies etc. So in a sense many of the men had jobs to come home to, their places kept warm by the women who had to take what was left, if anything. African American soldiers and workers faced Jim Crow with a vengence while the white GIs got the easier pickings. Manufacturing was booming post WW2, so there was indeed plenty of work. Not so now....certainly having been in the services should not be a hindrance to anyone but I'm not at all sure it should be an advantage either. One hears of the 'skills' returning vets have, the ability to work in a team, leadership etc. Working in a team these days means doing what you are told and certainly NOT taking intiiative, so yes indeed vets have experience in doing what they are told, even if its wrong. As for leadership, I don't buy that one either, leadership in the services frequently involves telling someone else what to do, and that skill has its place but there are other aspects of leadership, providing example, vision etc I'm not so confident are as common as one might be lead to believe. So let each of us go after a job on our own merits of lack thereof. Everyone needs a break, vet or not! Full employment has been defined as 'unemploymen't at around 4.5% once it gets below that there is a panic regarding impending inflation and interest rates rise. So the possibility of 0% unemployment is a non starter. If the economy requires some of us to be unemployed it must take the consequences, unemployment benfits, health care etc to name but a few.
Not to mention that a lot of the work done at this moment is worse than unnecessary, it's actively destructive and should be eliminated. Marketing (one trillion dollars a year) and PR, military "work" and all associated production, almost anything that involves cars, a lot of services that only waste petrol and increase CO2 emissions etc etc, the list goes on and on. It's cheaper in absolute terms (ie. in terms of resources) to pay people for not doing this kind of stuff. On the other hand, a system optimised for efficient (in terms of resource use and waste) operation would require, in addition to a relatively short term burst of construction of a greener infrastructure, quite a bit more human labour in agriculture, education and healthcare in the long term; not to mention that more active political participation (requiring more time also) and more free time in general are not exactly bad things either.
Marlborough: You raise good points.
The thinking person (or Progressive) is left to grapple with one over-riding issue: squandered opportunities!
When Obama was first elected and compared with FDR as the economy was rushing over the banker-designed rapids, the opportunity was SURELY in place to start a massive back-to-work program, rather than dole out unemployment checks (and keep favorable-to-corps tax policies in place). The passing out of these funds, added to far greater allotments handed to the banksters left everything in the same place it was when the shit hit the fan. In other words, it was a placebo effect, rather than a cure!
So now, with less $ presumably in the national tank to fuel what needed to be done 3 years ago, the political muscle does not exist to do what needs to be done... and in fact is overdue!
The Army Corps of Engineers gives our nation's bridges, schools, and much of the public infrastructure a D to failing grade. These assets were built up decades ago, and like any physical entity, require maintenance and periodic rehab efforts.
Just as the nuclear power plants built 40 years ago are dangerously aging, without the profiteers reconstituting them (thanks to the lax policies of regulation), the types of breakdowns which are all but inevitable, have yet to be addressed. And THAT is where all the work should be directed!
Instead, the Washington pay-to-play club is pushing for MORE deregulation and MORE tax breaks to big business, and MORE trade deals that effectively move industry overseas.
If the Supreme Court were itself not another example of graft and corruption, what we should see would be Class Action suits against government and regulatory agencies for the way they've BETRAYED the U.S. public. Depraved indifference to life, and the future of the young is operating, beyond the pale. Ultimately, my only relief is the realization that karma catches up with everyone... eventually. Meanwhile, much will crack and fall asunder as the priorities being practiced by empowered elites are those indicative of savage disregard. WE are an occupied nation!
I saw a deal on PBS last night about homeless veterans, and I know many myself who are struggling, especially Vietnam and Iraq ones. These assholes in our Congress and admin are just so ignorant of what is happening out here. It's like they are in a bubble full of privilege gas, like they have single thoughts that go no where. We must embrace the veterans and pull them to our arms for comfort in the OCCUPY movement. They are all being damned by our government and whorporate MIC that obliterated these people's futures...as well as many of the kids today. What a shame.
Our country could be so much better, so well run, if only the greed were out of it. I don't hold out much hope because the war to end all wars meant nothing to anyone except a way to make money...you will see more war. You will see more ugly devastation of the world. You will see deaths by the millions for lack of water and food, exposure and disease, and you can lay it all at the feet of people at Goldman Sachs, Boeing, GE, and every single government employee elected by our brainwashed public, really fuxed up.
writer totally ignores the lure of the slave wages of 'emerging markets' that draw jobs away from the US due to whacked trade policy. $1.4 trillion of profits from this crime held offshore are awaiting politicians to screw the American people some more with tax breaks whereby the money instantly goes to 'compensation' and dividends without any jobs created.
Take a deep breath, shall we? The 'lure' only works when our representatives take away trade tariffs. Other countries protect their wages with tariffs, and we used to. If we are looking for sollutions, lets consider some that have worked.
I have worked in the VA system for the past 5 years and I know a little about vet problems.
Most are badly damaged and suffer from PTSD, cirrhosis, malnutrition, homelessness, indigence, joblessness, and other diseases of poverty and neglect.
They don't need a special jobs program, they need a rehabilitation program and funds to keep them alive and in a decent environment so they don't have to scramble in the streets and panhandle on busy street intersections.
The military destroys young men and women and doesn't give a damn about the consequences.
The veterans affairs hospitals are going to be packed for the next generation and the funds are not being allocated by an irresponsible, hateful government.