Gosh, I thought it was Thursday already. So much buzz about the Big "Jobs" Speech, and here I thought it would be coming up this afternoon sometime, only to discover it's only Wednesday, and the leaked Obama "Jobs" proposal is about what was expected and it's utterly laughable.
But then, this administration has never had a real Jobs Program, nor will it have one for the rest of its term. As I've said many times, it was clear enough by the Inauguration that Team Obama had no interest in any kind of Jobs Program that would actually keep more than a few people working who might otherwise be unemployed, and that would actually put the unemployed back to work. High unemployment drives down wages and benefits for those who can find or maintain employment and this is a very pleasing state of affairs for the employer class. Unemployment, therefore, is not to be addressed with a Jobs Program.
We keep hearing the myth that public sector jobs are not "real jobs" when in fact they are, even if they are only make work. There is such an incredible amount of work to be done, however, that there is little chance that any public works program would be "make work" at the present time. Public sector jobs are "real jobs" that actually contribute to the overall economy and can significantly increase "demand" -- just as household debt relief can -- which in turn expands the economy. Even Nixon knew this -- and it worked.
So you can be sure that the Obama administration will never propose nor even entertain the notion of a public works jobs program now or in the future. They don't want anything that will demonstrate success in reviving the economy. They don't want a revived economy, they want to be able to talk about reviving it.
Instead, they will proposed extending unemployment benefits and an infrastructure "bank." Instead of household debt relief, they will propose yet another scheme to provide mortgage "help" that in too many cases makes things worse rather than better for households.
They will propose yet more free trade agreements which typically don't improve domestic employment.
They will propose direct aid to states to keep teachers and first responders on the job -- what does that mean to other categories of State and Local workers? Sounds like more "net zero."
They will propose patent reform and regulation roll backs.
They will propose continuing the payroll tax holiday, possibly extending it to employers, thus further weakening Social Security into the future.
They will propose unpaid "internships" instead of paid work until the economy turns around.
They will propose retraining programs for unemployed workers until the economy turns around.
On and on, dancing around the problem that workers cannot find work, employers are not hiring, and nothing is being proposed to put people back to work or to seriously address the problem of household debt.
But they'll talk about "jobs." So there is that.
In just the last couple of weeks, we have seen some blatantly obvious jobs that could be created right now, via the public sector. Hurricanes, wild fires, earthquakes have made it more than clear that our power grids and our first responder units are inadequate in the face of 21st century power needs and climate change. We could literally put millions of workers to great use revamping, reamping our virtual and physical infrastructure, along with EMT workers and the networks needed for immediate response. There is no reason in the world NOT to do that, other than the one you mentioned.
ReplyDeleteThe powers that be do not want low unemployment, because that swings leverage to workers, for the first time in decades. Obama has been given his marching orders and he aint going to deviate from that.
Did you catch any of the GOP debate? Oh, the humanity!! The crowd actually applauded the fact that Perry has overseen the execution of 234 people!! And Ron Paul tried to make the case that school lunches were un-Constitutional!! Jeebus!! What kind of country has a problem with meals for kids and applauds the death penalty?
We have jumped the shark many times over.
I know he has his passionate supporters, but I don't worry too much about what Ron Paul has to say. All the passion for Paul is based on his neo-isolationist stance, which ends up being a strong anti-Empire and anti-War stance. Oh and he's made some sane noises about the War on Drugs. He won't be the nominee, the VP, the kingmaker, or anything but a gadfly "principled crackpot." I'm actually surprised they are letting him in the debates. (Probably because it's the only way to generate any excitement for the lackluster GOP field this year.)
ReplyDeleteThe other Republican candidates, who are all terrible in their own ways are a much bigger problem. I could see Rick Perry making the same argument about school lunches, of course, but he'll also be gung ho for increasing the Pentagon budget.
I'm supposing that most Americans understand the crying need for infrastructure repair and reconstruction in every category all across the nation. It's long past the necessity to fill potholes; everything is out of date or falling apart, or like many public schools, still operating out of "temporary" structures that were erected 50 years ago or more.
ReplyDeleteAn aging population requires more and more at-home personal health care, so naturally, states are curtailing in home support services as "too expensive" while leaving the elderly to rot in nursing homes at quadruple the cost.
We should have been heading off our reliance on fossil fuels decades ago.
There is no excuse for not having high speed rail transportation.
Here in New Mexico, there was a series of terrible forest fires that were basically left to burn themselves out -- by policy, and the fact that the resources to adequately control them were nonexistent. Firefighters were racing from one blaze to another, there was inadequate aerial equipment, and unless the fires threatened urban or military areas, like Los Alamos, they were just left to burn.
Indians at Cochiti especially, and some of the old families in the Espanola area said, "Wait a minute, this is wrong. What about the watersheds? Shouldn't there be some effort to preserve the trees in the watersheds?"
It seemed obvious. Some of the canyons that were being allowed to burn are critical watersheds, and without any tree cover there would be floods come the rainy season. Sure enough, that's exactly what happened. A famous orchard was saved from the fire ("Yay!") only to be drowned in mud when the rains came ("Boo!") But everybody knew that would happen when the tree cover in the mountain canyon above the orchard wasn't protected from the fire. The Indians kept pleading, "Protect the canyons!" -- didn't happen. Oh well.
I could go on and on, but I know you all know exactly what this is about. It is engineered neglect, a form of domestic disinvestment that has been ongoing for many years. And nothing is being done to reverse it. The reversal should come from the public sector-- especially now -- but nothing of the kind is even being proposed in the marble halls of Power.
As for the debates, I stopped watching them years ago when their "talent show" nature got to me to the point I couldn't take it any more. The debates are more about grooming more than anything else.
And the candidate field on the R side is abysmal.
I wish there was a candidate field on the D side. But there isn't, is there?
As for Ron Paul, as far as I can tell, he thinks pretty much everything since 1791 has been "unconstitutional," on the assumption that they've been "doing it wrong" from the beginning. What he and his ilk never quite seem to grasp is that it is in the nature of constitutional self government to sometimes color outside the lines as it were. Ron Paul and his ilk don't get to decide what is and what is not "constitutional" anyway. Talk about coloring outside the lines!
While closing down the Imperial shop and unplugging the drug war (and all the other wars) are worthy issues, the solution is not in reviving the Confederacy. Sorry.
Here in Florida, we had a bipartisan consensus about the need for rail. Everything was ready to go, and there was a large amount of Federal money coming in to help build it.
ReplyDeleteThen the new governor, going against the wishes of much of his own party in the state, deliberately killed it based on something he read that was published by the Reason foundation. (Thank you, Charles and David Koch!)
Well, here's an editorial about it:
Train wreck of a governor
Incidentally, I'm wouldn't be surprise if there is Koch money behind Ron Paul too. I know he's close to the Confederates at LewRockwell.com , but I'm not sure where their funding comes from ( I should do some research on that). They are very much of the Austrian School of Economics, and the Bell Curve school of "racial hygiene."
Regardless, Paul is pure "Stars and Bars" as Candidates go o/~ Oh, I wish I was in Dixie, Hooray ... o/~
But you ARE in Dixie!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was working in Florida (at a site right next to the airport where it is said some of the pilots of the 9/11 planes were trained, a notorious drug-running air strip to boot) I was invited to a Good Ol' Boys party out in the swamps somewhere.
There I found out that Dixie is alive and well in Florida. Oh my yes.
Though some friends had invited me and everyone seemed to be having a grand old time under the Stars and Bars, I left after about 10 minutes. It was a little too much of a culture shock.
When I asked a friend-colleague later about all this Confederate shit going on out in the backcountry -- including gun play and much "niggah" dissing -- he said he'd never even given it a thought. It was just Boys Being Boys and he didn't think they meant anything by it. He was surprised I was taken aback by it.
I found a similar attitude in Georgia, and not just rural Georgia, either.
Dixie lives.
But from a practical standpoint, Florida is ideal for high speed rail, makes total sense there. So of course the R governor says... Nope. Not gonna do it.
California's high speed rail project is under considerable assault from both usual and not so usual suspects. They can't even agree on where to put it.
Well, yes, that's true about Florida being Dixie. Once a week, I usually go to a Thai Buddhist temple to give food to some monks in Plant City. There's always the Stars and Bars flying over the junction between I75 and I275 you can't miss it. It's gargantuan.
ReplyDeleteAlso, a lot of Stormfront stuff here... Hell I think the Website is based here.