What to do about long-term unemployment?
I am not an expert in economics or business, nor do I play one on TV. But when Megan McArdle, who is both of those things, writes that there’s not much that government can do for the long-term unemployed, I both agree and disagree.
I agree with McArdle that stimulus money gives little bang for a huge buck that we can’t afford. In addition, as she points out, direct hiring by government, as in Roosevelt’s New Deal, would not do the trick now due to a changed workforce and atmosphere (more unions, less manual labor). And McArdle doesn’t even mention that it’s not at all clear that this latter effort was actually a significant factor in getting us out of that first Depression, although it did temporarily ease the plight of a significant number of workers in the meantime.
It seems to me that government can do one important thing, however: convince business that it’s their friend. The only way government can help to lower unemployment significantly is to encourage an economic climate in which businesses want to expand rather than contract. And it also seems to me that, if the Obama administration had wanted to design an approach that did the exact opposite, they could hardly have done better than they have during this past year.
Instead, they have added to the uncertainty and fear—not the least of it, fear of what the federal government will do to raise taxes and hamper business growth. They have mounted vigorous verbal attacks on the entire idea of business and profit, combined with halfhearted and unconvincing backtracks about how this administration is not hostile but is actually a friend to business and to capitalism.
They have focused huge amounts of energy on a series of health care reform bills that are likely to hamper (and then ultimately dismantle, years down the road) one of the perks of job ownership—private health insurance—by burdening it with further taxes and regulations that promise to cost businesses more, not less. And this is true even though a president and Congressional leaders whom business has come to profoundly distrust attempt to say otherwise.
In such an atmosphere, who would take a chance and hire?
On health reform, and on all matters, I wish government would learn from the Hippocratic Oath to “do no harm.”
The Law of Unintended Consequences seems to especially apply to government actions.
Isn’t it one of the most fundamental rules that if you’re making something worse–STOP!?
Neo, what you say is so common sense logical that it isn’t even possible that the impact on private industry employment is not being done on purpose.
These socialist have nothing but seething contempt for the average person being able create goods or a service that may net him an income by society’s judgement far exceeding that of a university professor or politician. They’d much prefer a permanent class system with themselves assured to be on top.
Neo,
You may not be an economist, but you, I and most people grasp the basic principals of economics:
1) you can’t spend money you don’t have;
2) you must eventually pay back what you borrow, so don’t borrow more than you can pay back.
This is the way we’re forced to run our households and our lives.
Regarding your short exegesis on Obama’s anti-capitalist administration, keep in mind that this is how progressives, and specifically the Democratic party, works.
The Democratic party is a group of special interest groups (political feminists, gays, unions, the black caucus, etc). They have very little in common and are willing to take from other components of the party to enlarge their own slice of the pie (thus, the frequent observation that liberals “eat their own”).
The best way to keep them cobbled together is to focus their attention on an external enemy; in the past the Republican party and capitalism have served well for this purpose.
No surprise, then, that Obama’s administration is the most anti-capitalist in even distant memory.
The current thinking that, “Gosh, how do we get businesses to hire?” is way too simplistic. A business cannot hire someone unless they actually have WORK for that newly hired person. When a company gets a significant amount of work orders they generally call back those they have temporarily laid off first before they start in hiring new people.
Dems and libs have been inveighing against business as the enemy of the people so long that making any concessions to business success–not including high-donating wall street firms–will be considered selling out by all they’ve convinced.
“Democrats don’t hate employment. It’s employers they hate.” Source unknown.
Neo – the first part of the last 2 main paragraphs you’ve written sound almost ‘Declaration of Independence’-like. They have added…, they have focused… they have mounted…
If you are preparing the first draft, I’d say you were off to a good start!
I finally had a conversation with a friend who I would describe as a old time Democrat, and he is also of “that” age… 68.
I was somewhat surprised to find how much he supports the health care package. “We need it, and if you have the majority, then why not do what you want?” He also still places the blame on the deficit on Bush. He kept saying, “Where were these people against the the deficit when Bush was President?” I responded that many conservative were not all that happy with Bush and RINO’s for their spending ways. When I pointed out the ballooning under Obama, he airly dismissed it. The party leadership seems to have even the old style Dems in hand.
We agreed that our basic differences boil down to his statement: “I really like government.” While, of course, I don’t.
Neo,
Don’t forget the cap-and-trade and energy instability. Even when Obama pretends to be reasonable about the 2 nuclear power plants, no one can forget his Yucca Mountain decision. There is no core to Obama on which anyone can count.
One thing we can do about long term unemployment is stop extending benefits beyond nine to twelve months. Research shows that among people who ultimately find work it happens near when benefits expire. Until then, people do not look for unattractive jobs or consider relocating. It is estimated that the unemployment rate is about 1% higher than it would be if benefits were curtailed.
During the Great Depression people left the dust bowl hoping to find work. Sitting in Michigan waiting for a job is not a good strategy.
Uncertainty is the key word. In uncertain times, everyone naturally hunkers down to wait and see what’s going to happen.
Obama fuels uncertainty by being a loose cannon. He’s made so many flaky decisions (abrogating GM lending agreements, Skip Gates, KSM, Van Jones, Kevin Jennings) and has such a bizarre past (Wright, Ayers, Davis, his time in Witness Protection) that onlookers half-expect him to show up at a White House press conference with a parrot on his shoulder. Who in his right mind takes on risk under those circumstances?
I view nothing that Obama & Co does that harms our capitalist system and economy as mere blundering or an accident; not a bug but a feature.
Mr. Frank: it is more difficult to be considered for a job which requires relocation than the one in your area. I know from a personal experience.
Some employers even state in their ads: only residents of MetroXX need to apply.
Unless it’s a construction management job in Abu Dhabi…
Tatyana,
People often have close relatives in another state who will put them up for awhile while they look for work. I have seen this in my family.
without capital, the people are not free enough to climb… they are slaves to those who withold the capital and dole it out little by little… why? because freedom is too valuable, and freedom must be rationed.
the founding fathers realized that capitailsm was just another word for freedom, for a man with no property is not free to exercise his will. he is only free to die.
minimum wage prevents the poor from doing what they can together. it prevents the africans from competing level with illegal immigrants (and forces their 13% to be 40% of all abortions – sanger would be proud).
without FREEDOM, we cant get out of unemployment
we no longer have the freedom to build at the lower level, as a fascist state controls through large corporations and their fractured concerns.
small companies are free to compete and knock them off with disruptive technology.
and these kinds ofperiod are rife with people with time, using it to make a better somethign to bring to market.
but, back then, the wealthy and the poor would sit at the same table, and as laughton in ruggles movies, could make friend and mutually benifit (like a vc), and as he said…
finally determine his own course…
a collective isnt a herd of cats all on their own course..
so how do you think they get everyone with their own lives onto their program?
homelessness and starvation for you or family will get people to even build camps…
funny how everyone said no way…
and we are rolling up to the way it works…
when they control health, and energy, they control food and that… and they then can dish out hell to those tha dont comply and the others will visit hell on those for fear of the same punishment on them.
no army
no guns
just little chits of paper
which represent whether you live or not
or your loved ones you value do
so much for the army theory
Actually Obama is creating long term employment, it’s just not here in the USA. His anti-business tirades and the Democrat Congress’s business suffocating laws with regard to banking, CO2 regulation, antitrust enforcement, free speech, free trade, automobile manufacturing, consumer lending, credit cards, and so on and so on and so on, are pushing businesses overseas, especially those that manufacture real tangible products. Moreover, class actions are rapidly undermining our economy, as they are nothing more than open season on any producers that still imprudent enough to sell their products and services here and result in legally sanctioned wealth transfers from those who invest their talents and money into producing things or providing services to plaintiff law firms that are the Democrat party’s largest contributors. The result is that our economy is being strangled from within, and we get to suffer every tightening of the noose. So, opportunity is still around the corner, but only if you are willing to move to China or India.
Recovery will come only with a Republican president and Congress, so the likelihood of a real recovery is at least 3 years away.
Occam,
I think the parrot on the shoulder might be an improvement over TOTUS.
Mr. Frank: my relatives live in Michigan.
Tatyana @ 5:08-
And your point is what?
Tom,
see Mr. Frank’s original comment.
I’ll spell it out for you: there are no jobs anywhere, no matter in what state. My “all regions” daily search in my profession brings from 30 to 60 hits nationally; about 80% of them are in fact NOT in my profession, but return any ad where one or combination of words describing my profession appears (i.e. the keyword is “designer”, so it brings sales positions for “dealing with designers“, etc. If I put in keyword “architect” it brings 80% of ads with IT Architect in them. Not helpful.)
I’m not saying there are no jobs at all, but the number of applicants is about 200/per position right now. And has been, more or less, for 18 months.
Also, to those who advocate to cut unemployment payments: this is not a welfare check. The money for unemployment come from involuntary payroll deduction: it comes from PAYCHECK of people who was steadily employed for years and years and lost the job for no fault of their own.
I’d much prefer that for 18 years that I live and worked here my paycheck was not cut in half by all the withdrawals and deductions, including the “unemployment insurance” ones; then I’d be able to save for a rainy day on my own. But one has no say in a matter of government taxation.
“Cant find work” and “will only work in my field” or “will only work in good job” are not the same thing. Millions of illegals come into this country in part because they are willing to do the jobs the “unemployed” won’t do because they are collecting a government check. And millions of American citizens are willing to tolerate the illegals in part because the government will subsidize their unemployment. In many cases these jobs would pay better if the illegals were not flooding the market with cheap- often off the book labor. sometimes I really hate my job- but its a job.
And tolerating those illegals for so long is about to shift the political situation significantly. One of our local journalists just commented that the plan for Democrats in State of Texas is is to hang on till the “inevitable demographic shift”. Which is pretty much already happened. Obama barely lost in the State of Texas.
I’d much prefer that for 18 years that I live and worked here my paycheck was not cut in half by all the withdrawals and deductions, including the “unemployment insurance” ones; then I’d be able to save for a rainy day on my own. But one has no say in a matter of government taxation.
all of us that know better what they are doing, understand and agree with you completely..
penalizing the ants in favor of grasshoppers so numerous they have become locusts….
devastates everyone, not just the ants
jon baker: are you talking to me?
I wish you to be in my place. for half a year. then I’ll see what job you’ll take.
In mid 2008, in the open primary state of Texas, I caucused for Hillary. If it was possible to stop Obama, I wanted to help. A fun night: I caucus for Hillary. This story, related to a group of us standing in line, fits into this blogpost:
Dem went to her stockbroker in 2004. Broker was explaining how the market would break out, and the Dow would go up, immediately when Bush was re-elected. Therefore, she and her husband should shift money into common stock now, so they could enjoy the rise in value of their stock immediately after Bush was re-elected. She says, “So my husband got mad. He said to our broker: ‘What if Kerry is elected!’ And the broker looks right at him and says: ‘Then God help us all!'”
Millions of illegals come into this country in part because they are willing to do the jobs the “unemployed” won’t do because they are collecting a government check.
that trope is not true at all… period..
watch a season of dirty jobs. go ahead…
take a look who is doing the majority of them?
watch north sea crab fishing, who is doing that work?
they are here and they can get work because they will work off the books, and when they do, the people who are willing to have double books, can have them as employees
in ny , they tend to give absentee jobs to family, and out of that salary pay the illegals… two races are cut out, one because the state and SBA has special programs where they cant compete if they own such against these others, and the others are african americans
now the interesting thing is if you take some time and learn what the gang hand tatoos stand for. you can tell what certain specialites some of them have (many many others have nothing to do with that).
the problem is that the state has its fingers in different areas of business and that this adds up together in a synergystic way to create a social end through manipulating the economic and legal reality of people against their will (often in an experimental form while pretending its engineering)
i have been a laborer up to a professional..
what many dont get is that its the BOSSES that cause people not to be able to do other things.
for instance… if you a few weeks ago earned 80k, you get really assinine things from people who may hire you for minimum wage. how do i know, because i was out for a long time, and was willing to do what i could earn.
what stopped me was socialists jealousy, and bosses who used bad logic, and so forth.
i wont hire you because i have high turn over and if you get another job later you will leave.
i wont hire you because you earned twice as much as i do now, and i am jealous (but instead i will say to you… that i am doing it for you).
i wont hire you because we really want a woman for his position (its legal, its illegal the other way around).
i am afraid if i hire you, you can do the job better than me, and my boss will fire me and keep you.
and the list goes on… some they will say, others you can figure… and of course some you imagine.
but in the end. you didnt get a job, and someone else that never had that problem gets snarky and thinks you are a prima donna.
bottom line… you cant get hired if they wont hire you, and the reason they wont hire you is not just because you wont go to them if they dont offer you a good place… its because of ego, experience, just dont like you, your socks were mismatched, you stuttered, you had them hold a cold cup of soda in the elevator (see study), they were cut off by a car in the parking lot (turned out to be you), you went the competitor of their alma matter.
its people interacting with people
not rule based machines interacting according to a rule base…
real reasons exist and they are never as stupid as that trope that illegals do the jobs that others wont.
truth is… that illegals dont get those crappy jobs cause they sue for better working conditions, so those jobs are left to the ones you see on the shows.
entrepreneurs that know that they can earn doing what few others will do…
why would entrepreneurs leave money to be picked up by others? a socialist with an agenda who is talking to ignorants might get away with that kind of idea… but to real entrepreneurs and people who have worked hard in their lives at many levels, it just dont wash.
well, Tatyana, I work in an un-airconditioned, unheated metal building in Texas where it frequently breaks 100 F for days in a row in the summer, full of metal dust, loud noise and on my feet all day long. I often get burned.
Previously I have worked where half the crew spoke Espanol and I spoke more Spanish than they spoke English. I know what they did to the wages in that industry. I have served my country in the military, spent 18 months overseas on its behalf. I have worked on Abrams battle tanks in the Texas sun and the dust of Fort Hood when the jet engines were still smoking hot but we had mechanical work to get done anyway. Had I have finished my college degree would I have been better off?- certainly. Did I miss oportunities here and there-of course. My supervisor at work has an engineering degree- but he is right there with us in my current job. The officers I served with also had degrees. (Except that some 2nd Lts, in the Texas National Guard had not quite finished their degree) . Those officers, while their jobs were not as physical, generally speaking, were still busting their humps in unfavourable conditions- often sleep deprived, and shower deprived due to the rigors of their job.
I have worked on my families farm (they sell at a farmers market)picking tomatoes, on my hands and knees digging potatoes (we bust the ground up with a middle buster, but you still have to sort them out of the sand), spent hours spraying peach trees wearing a respirator when the temps were in the 90’s, built wire fences, including barb wire-I even ran a fence buisiness for a while myself- mostly privacy fences in the city. didnt hire a single illegal to dig the post holes- dug them all myself with a posthole digger. mixed the concrete myself- all those jobs they keep saying ” only the illegals will do”
Don’t give me this implied-“I have a degree so I am too good to do this or that.” and if a degree means all you can do is that field- it sounds like it has limited you.
Artfldgr,i beleive what you are describing is industries and areas where the illegals have completely overwhelmed and taken over. The bosses get spoiled to them. But there is a transition period before that.
What I find interesting, and maddening, is that in my area the local paper has on more than one occasion advertised “hispanic buisiness loans”-in other words, now they are beginning to stack the decks against not just the employees, but the buisiness owners.
Artfldgr, if you are half as condescending in real life as you are in writing, then Im sure you do have trouble finding work in some areas.
Tatyana,
Of course unemployment payments are welfare checks. All taxes, not just “unemployment insurance”, are involuntary. Sorry to have to state the obvious, but taxes pay for ALL government disbursements, whether bullets or bridges, Medicaid or unemployment “benefits”. And the good ol’ USA today pays the unemployed twice as long as those Eurosocialist nations!
Being unemployed can be pretty soft; there was a spate of articles in our Leftist media last year cheering the good life lived on unemployment ‘benefits’ by the recently laid-off.
It is good to enjoy one’s work. But it is work, after all, and loving it is not a necessary pre-condition for gainful employment.
Tatyana,
I am sorry for your situation, even if my comments did not seem so syphathetic.
I reallyyyyyy hate my job sometimes……
sympathetic I meant
ok, jon, since you find the game of “credentials amusing (I’m not gonna call it more deserving name), let me list some of the jobs in my life I did:
-worked as press operator in hot-die press shop (auto-truck manufacturing plant), in worse conditions than our TX metal shop, I’m sure.
-milked cows and cooked for 40 farmhands
-picked potatoes, cabbage and beets from November fields in Udmurtia (look it up; pay attention to climate)
-worked in a flower shop ( a hint: roses only look pretty, until you you spent a day lifting buckets with 100s of them)
-cleaned houses, professionally
About diplomas: I have two. Worked in consequent careers for 20 years.
Not just worked: excelled.
Are you suggesting I return go back houses? Won’t happen. Two reasons: 1st, they won’t hire me coz I’m “overqualified”. Second: my back is not as it was 15 years ago. They won’t even hire me as a florist; I tried. They won’t hire me as anything – and I’ll never know why; they simply do not bother answering applications.
It’s not about me, personally, jon, hundreds of thousands in the same situation. I browsed the job bank of NY Labor department: yes, there are lists of occupations that are currently needed. All of them skilled professions that require particular education, a minimum years of practical experience and/or licenses/certificates. Nurses, paralegals, construction inspectors, crane operators, cooks, etc etc. Not a job an illegal can do.
Besides, jon, my point remains: unemployment payment is not a government handout. It’s part of paycheck taken by the government previously and now returned to their right owner. It is incorrect (and frankly, insulting) to suggest that people on unemployment are lazy collectors of taxpayers’ money.
I cut this comment in half; I have much more to say, but already this thread went far away from the original post.
Tom: you’re wrong. It is not welfare. I earned my check, after 18 years of funding unemployment of others.
Even IRS agrees with me: they treat unemployment payments as income, and demand taxes from it!
Besides, nobody says anything about “loving” one’s job.
And – hell, no: I will not look for menial job now, not with my aggregated experience and body of practical knowledge. Even if I did – they won’t hire me: I’m “overqualified”.
Another thing, Tom _about the supposed “good life” of the laid-off.
I gather you haven’t been in their situation yourself, or you would’ve known that states have a maximum allowable limit on amount of weekly benefit. If you in NY – it’s $405, in Arizona – $205. Then look at the local prices for a “consumer basket” – average rent, average grocery cost, utilities, etc. Then you’d realize: a person with family can not survive on that without supplementing the budget, from savings or from other sources.
Tatyana,
Sorry for your problems. I would suggest you get out of that liberal dominated state of New York then. Sounds like it is dying even faster than the rest of the country.
course, we are probably all screwed before this thing is over.
and i wasnt trying to be condescending… its condescending to say to people that they are prima donna to work… this is seldom true.
jobs i have held? i have worked since i was a pre teen..
from bagging spices in a small hindi bodega in the inner city, at a time of race riots, and bad incidents. (he paid me 50 cents for a half hour).
collecting cans, pipes, wire, and such WAY before it was fashionable. grandparents and family were together and had been through the US depression on one side, hitler and stalin on the other side, and basically were janitors and superindendents.
in case you didnt know… thats pretty bottom in that we all knew each other as other kids wouldnt play with the people who worked with their garbage.
i graduated to repairing wall sockets, doorknobs in the building, and old ladies would pay me a bit to fix leaks… i was a lot cheaper than plumber
my first real tax paying official job was with Great Adventure when i was 14 (with parental permission and filing the papers).. but i had done jobs before that.. like exterminating wasp and bees nests, and other odd jobs around the neighborhood..
Great Adventure was interesting, a wonderful laboratory where you got to see up to 80,000 people a day…. people would be very surprised how unoriginal they are most of the time.
did food, collect garbage, rid operations, front gate security, funnel cake, etc… was even a stand in superhero, and a goul, before the kids got killed in the fire. Worked Seaside carnie too….
mowed lawns, trimmed hedges, dug tree stumps…
got work as a gopher on a construction site, did a bit watching sites and kicking other kids out, then did framing… from there i did some brick laying and preping the foundations… did clean up… pre wire (where the electrician does the final wiring). roofing, and siding… at one point nearly became a glazier.
by the way, we havent even reached my 20s yet. did delivery of pizza, and later cars… glazier, parts assembly, and other factory work… and a year as an inner department accountant (i added up numbers and resolved double sided bookeeping ledgers)
went to school… then was scooped up by a fortune company, then to a paper company… then to an insurance company. did consulting… worked for consulting firms. VAR (value added reseler). tried to start my own company, one was ok for a while, the other the ‘partners’ bled.
have done portrait drawings, i have done photography (and do that when i feel like it covering celebrities. i fell into that by serendip and other family history)…
and i have done more…
and if i wasnt working, i would do what i needed to do to earn what i could. i have a HUGE set of talents and skills to pick from… this because depression experienced people tended to drum the things they thought would have served them well in that situation and of course out of it.
the more you had the more useful you were to someone else, the more you offered in one package.
i have a world of experience in working and getting jobs. (so i guess you read me wrong and your deductive reasoning was NOT either (deductive or reasoning))
in almost all cases the reason that i didnt get to work was that the person i offered myself didnt give it to me.
there are always things that people wont do, and for some reason, but in the panoply of what can be done, very few of them are so dumb as to become homeless and incur great loss because they wont do something outside their normal work.
though i do see them hold off as long as they can on doing work at lower salary because their next salary is based on their last salary… which is why i am now making around what i did when i was in my early 20s… and no where near the highest i made, and will never ever ever see again.
its ALSO not comforting knowing that us 30% of working people are now supporting in some way 70% of the others… (with the wealthiest leaving the table so they dont get stuck with a bill inflated under reasoning that everyone at the table would tag them for the bill when it came).
Tatyana and others: I think for most people, the stress and strain of being laid off and unemployed supersedes and pretty much cancels out any possible enjoyment to be gained from the free time one suddenly has. Not to mention the money fears.
And that “overqualified” business is very real. I’ve never completely understood it, but once you have degrees and/or experience people are loathe to hire you for what they consider a lesser task.
President Obama could, if he so chose, quickly end the recession and unemployment by making announcements of policy changes and them oving to see to their implementation.
First: He could announce that he will NOT sign any version of the Health Care Reform bill currently in Congress.
Second: He could announce that he will veto the “cap and trade” legislation.
Third: He will ask that Congress extend the Bush tax cuts for another 10 years.
Fourth: He would repeal any and all Presidential Executive Orders that would impede oil exploration and exploitation throughout the nation, with the exception of National Parks.
Fifth: He will support the development and type-certified nuclear power plants and call for tax incentives to spur their construction.
Sixth: He would propose changes in Federal law that impede the construction of petroleum and chemical refineries.
Seventh: He would begin ordering all executive departments to reduce their budgets by 10 per cent.
Eight: He would begin working toward reducing future spending and use the surpluses to pay toward the debt.
Ninth: When discussing the budget and sending, he would avoid using budgetary and parliamentary tricks to mask spending and would expect the same from all members of Congress and the media.
Tenth: The President would devote himself to restoring the wealth of the nation’s people from which the strength of the nation is derived.
jon: I have been sending my resumes nationally for a year now. At least HR people in Houston, Spokane and Kansas City were polite enough to send me a rejection letter…
The latest example of the “locals only” ad I talked about:
“Local Residents Preferred (No Relo) “.
As I said: it’s not about me personally. Hell, I’m in a better situation than most: I have no dependents, no debt, I’m relatively healthy (and pay for my COBRA, even though it’s a huge expense for me now). What about all those people with 2 car loans, mortgage and kids?
Poole: now, that would be a change we could all hope for.
Unfortunately, there’s not a chance in the world that it will happen.
I mentioned this before on this blog when discussing unemployment, consider, be prepared to severely relocate to places you would never consider going to.
Tom wrote
“Being unemployed can be pretty soft; there was a spate of articles in our Leftist media last year cheering the good life lived on unemployment ‘benefits’ by the recently laid-off.”
Try unemployment Tom, let us know how fun your having!
Poole:
Eleventh: Monkeys will fly out of his butt.
Bob, about relocation to weird places: I just sent an application to a job at Kwajalein, Marshall Islands.
I’ll wait for the response…
Tatyana,
I only started the “credentials” thing because you implied at 7:28 that I might not be willing to take certain jobs- at least thats how I read it. Perhaps I misunderstood. Have you considered becoming a teacher? Texas has some certification program where degreed persons can get a certificate to teach without getting an “education” degree.
ArtFldgr: I did not mean that no ‘unemployed” people would take the jobs “only illegals will do”- after all, I have had some of those jobs myself. But I will not pretend that there are many who really do fit that category- the “perpetualy unemployed” certainly do. But like i said before, I think some of those job areas would pay better- at least down here in the non-unionized south where the illegals now constituted a significant percent of the population-if the illegals were not here. I dont remember the exact figures, but I beleive one estimate put the number of illegals in Texas in the double digits percent of the overall population.
Poole,
You are spot on with your recommendations. It makes me so mad that at least some in the MSM or Congress aren’t screaming this at the top of their lungs. Implementing those steps would put this country back to work in a matter of 18 months. But, as others have commented – ain’t no way it’s going to happen with this bunch of Progressives in Congress and the White House.
Tatyana,
So sorry to hear.
Poole,
Spot on.
All,
Read the first few chapters of J.C. Watts “Color of a Conservative”.
Heartwarming. His father was an entrepreneur at heart. He used his entire being to earn a living his entire life. I don’t think any of us can lay claim to doing more in life. He painted a picture about how tough things were for a black American during the Depression in Oklahoma.
I’m fascinated yet in a horrific kind of way about the contrast between the Great Depression and how things are tough now. Then… people seemed to scape and scrap for food and shelter.
Now… we have protections . we have the unemployment insurance and health care is provided in away it wasn’t back then. J.C. Watts covers that topic in those first few chapters talking about the “home” remedies employed by his mother and other mothers of the era.
My heart aches for anyone who has such a tough time in life. Yes, I’ve suffered being poor also. And… there by the grace of God go I.
It’s hard to talk about macro-economics when it becomes personal. It’s not just theories. There is an effect of extending unemployment to people on the economy that is negative. It extends unemployment funny enough. But the people who are on unemployment generally need it. I say generally because I knew a fornicator who got on unemployment after he was let go from his job but had plenty of money, a porsche and …. his homewrecker.
BTW,
I have taken it upon myself to do more than work for an employer.
Yes it is chump change much of the time but I’ve walked and walked passing out fliers to provide service to people in my area.
It used to be to mow lawns.
Now it’s to fix their computer.
1000’s of fliers later – it may be chump change i’m earning but it’s an idea.
Are you good at something? Anything?
Painting?
Gardening?
Cleaning?
Sewing?
I saw an old asian couple this morning picking cans out of garbage. I talked to my coworker Todd about it. He said he’s seen them a few times over the years. Not just recently.
I don’t know if anybody is interested in the Falkland Islands and Argentina.
http://hotair.com/archives/2010/03/02/british-irate-over-hillary-comments-on-falklands/
From Wikipedia
The islands are a self-governing Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom. Stanley, on East Falkland, is the capital.
Ever since the re-establishment of British rule in 1833[8] Argentina has claimed sovereignty. In pursuit of this claim, which is rejected by the islanders,[9] Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands in 1982. This precipitated the two-month-long undeclared Falklands War between Argentina and the United Kingdom and resulted in the defeat and withdrawal of the Argentine forces.
Tatyana wrote
“Bob, about relocation to weird places: I just sent an application to a job at Kwajalein, Marshall Islands.”
The Marshall Islands !!!
I feel guilty wishing you good luck in your job search.
Do I hear Pitcairn’s Island anyone?
I better not joke about that.
Thanks, Bob.
I hear it’s an exotic place…what’s with Bikini Atoll, highest leprosy in the world and occasional typhoon…
Try riding out this recession without unemployment compensation because you were self employed. I paid toward unemployment for 28 years while working for someone else before leaving to do my own thing in 2006. Theres a lot of people caught in this same predicament.
Its almost like the self employed are singled out for punishment for daring to take risk in life that progressives seem to abhor at the core of their being.
Baklava,
It’s not just the Falklands, Obama’s foreign policy is so incoherent throughout the world that it adds another major element of instability to our economic worries. Does anyone really think he can deal with China in a way that considers trade, militarization, intellectual property, and human rights? Especially after his downgrading of our relations with India? With Russia he is trying to negotiate an arms reduction treaty at the same time he announces our unilateral reduction of nuclear weapons. He is playing to the totally incompetent German foreign minister on the topic of removing NATO missiles from German soil. I won’t even get in to Syria and Iran or his fondness for international law.
This man’s idea of foreign policy is kumbaya with just enough get-tough added (provided he has his designated hit taker should things go South) to confuse everyone. He is scaring off proven, if sometimes complaining, allies and counting on UN-type sycophants to keep his image polished. All in all, he has destabilized the world and diminished our standing in it. Business people aren’t the only ones who scared to stick their necks out.
Obama was right to point out his time in Indonesia as the strong point in his foreign policy creds. He acts just about like a ten year old on the international stage.
Well, I sure hope someone starts hiring. My unemployment benefits will soon run out. It’s the first time in over twenty five years that I’ve had to apply. I’m getting edgier by the week.
My gut feeling and what I’ve heard out and about; Nobody’s comfortable as long as this administration is running things, and that business won’t pick up until there’s a reasonable measure of confidence.
Will wrote “Nobody’s comfortable as long as this administration is running things, and that business won’t pick up until there’s a reasonable measure of confidence.”
You summed it up. Few are acknowledging that 800 lb. gorilla in the room.
But hey O still has the support of 44%.
I dread to think what it would take to wake them up.
It does seem like an aggressive set of pro business policies could get the economy moving, if only they were implemented.
I think it was economic writer Megan McArdle who commented that things have changed so much that a rerun of the old Great Depression era public works projects wouldn’t work today, because there is just not that much “pick axe and shovel work” these days.
I don’t know about you, but everywhere I go in the metro D.C. area as well as out of State, there is some sort of road work going on–pothole repair, repaving, new highways being built, road widening, re-striping, crash barriers being installed or repaired, new power lines, sewers and fiber optics cable being laid, and, as we have seen in recent years, there are hundreds of substandard bridges that need to be repaired or replaced. So, just in this area of infrastructure alone I do think that if the Federal government were to really give States money for such infrastructure repairs and upgrades–and the States really used this money for projects that were already planned out and ready to go, and not for political payoffs or teacher salaries–there could be an immediate impact on the unemployment rate, presuming a lot of people would be willing to take these low-tech, often backbreaking jobs.
But beyond this, the Federal government has to set up the conditions for entrepreneurs and small business to flourish and not just big business. Then, they need to get out of the way and not interfere, and that means a pro-, not anti- business agenda; far less regulation, paperwork and far less government workers, suppressing unions and their roadblocks and demands as much as possible on federally funded projects, much lower taxes–including a roll back in rates and/or several month’s moratorium on having to pay income tax withholding, and a general reduction in income tax levels, reduced inventory taxes, rewards for hiring, substantial and economy—wide rewards for innovation and invention, incentives to develop our own immediately available energy sources–oil and gas–and long-term–nuclear, investment in retraining programs and basic skills programs at Community Colleges all over the country, a new emphasis on quality and durability, as opposed to churning out cheap, shoddy products that wear out or fail quickly so that they soon need to be replaced, government policies that encourage companies to stay in the U.S. and not send jobs overseas, strong reinvestment in our languishing merchant marine, investment in high tech but also in trying to make basic smokestack industries like steel production viable again, the government aggressively trying to increase U.S. exports and diminish imports, and above all, a massive reduction in government spending, deficits and debt to keep the U.S. dollar strong.
Government should spend tax money on encouraging production and quality, not on paper shuffling and regulation. The aim should be to again make the things we use here in the U.S. and to make “Made in China” a synonym for low quality junk, when compared to high quality products made in the U.S.A.
Since, however, Obama & Co.–Socialists/Collectivists/Marxists/Fascists masquerading as just “Liberals”–are the implacable enemies of Capitalism, this will never happen under this Administration, and, as we can see on a daily basis, Obama & Co. are doing everything in their power to destroy our economy and Capitalism, and to usher in a Collectivist, a Socialist/Marxist/Fascist state.
One factor not mentioned is the increase in the minimum wage right before the crash. Youth unemployment is very high, and many of these people will never recover from such a poor start.
In many ways the Obama administration is trapped by its ideology. They can’t suspend the minimum wage. They can’t suspend Davis-Bacon (sp) which requires union level wages for public works projects and thus reduces the number who can be employed. They can’t reduce capital gains taxes which would encourage entreprenuers to buy up surplus housing. They can’t reduce corporate taxes which would make our exports more competitive. They are going to raise taxes on the wealthy which will reduce investment and consumption of luxury items. I recall about twenty years ago when a big excise tax was put on yachts, airplanes, and luxury cars. In short order those industries and their workers were on the ropes.
Put simply, the liberals are out of ideas that might work.
A number of posters seem to have suspended reasoning in complaining about my earlier post. I’ll try again.
All involuntary payments to government are de facto taxes. Involuntary payments “returned” to to the payor, like unemployment or Social Security “benefits,” are taxable again.
The MSM (not I) last year reported how much fun some unemployed were having while receiving their “unemployment benefits” and represented unemployment supported by “benefits” to their readerships as a not so bad thing….Another boost for the Nanny State.
Tom, our reasoning is clear: for decades our employers were paying into unemployment insurance out of payroll, i.e. withdrawing money from our compensation, our paychecks. Now’s the time to claim it back. It is different from welfare: people on welfare have not contributed anything to receive their welfare checks. Do you understand the difference of working/contributing and not working/getting something for nothing?
It looks like you totally believed some unidentified “MSM” source propaganda, Tom. I gave you official figure of maximum allowable unemployment payment (not some vague “MSM” reference); I stress: it’s maximum allowable. General rule – it’s half of your last paycheck, but not more that the allowed cap. Magority of people never get the maximum amount. I’m asking you personally, not some “MSM” source: do you still think it’d be fun for your to live on $205 a week?
Besides: you’re the one complaining about those pesky unemployed.
Relax: we don’t live on your money; we live on ours.
Expat,
A big problem is that these things are not being covered EXCEPT by foreign news sources and blogs.
The Falklands blip, the Taiwan stuff, Iran, India, all of the other countries that are affected by this incompetent President with no history in his head isn’t covered by the domestic legacy drive-by media who spend their time making stuff up about Senator Bunning.
A comment wrt/ the easy life of the unemployed – TheAnchoress had an article link on her site in the last day or two talking about the health impact of being unemployed. Except for a lazy few, terror and hypochondria abound…
Geez, people, I wrote about what the MSM reported on the deelites of unemployment. Not me. Not my position. The MSM. Get it?
I am not compaining about the unemployed, Tatyana. And just becuz the gummint calls it “insurance” does not make it so. It can be called a cabbage instead if you like, but that don’t make it so. It’s still a tax. I paid it my entire working life, never got a ha’penny. So what? It is a tax. Enacted/extended by the Congress, signed by POTUS. Get it? Good.
And the USA pays unemployment ‘benefits’ for twice as long as the Euros do. So be glad you are here instead of Sweden, Tatyana!
You too, Tom – be glad you’re not in Sweden.
Because when you will be laid off, USA (or government…make up your mind) will be paying you back the money they took from your check.
Not to worry, Tats. I turned my back on Europa long, long ago. I am sorry you don’t understand. No government never “gives back” the money they took (as taxes) from my checks or anyone else’s. It just feels like it when one benefits from a program. Sometimes the money is put to good use; sometimes, more often, it isn’t. The trillions spent here on the War Against Poverty, for example, didn’t come from the poor, who will always be with us because there will always be a bellshaped curve….the Left wants to make it a very narrow spike.
And you’re telling this all me – why?
I only repeated your speech back to you, buddy. Keep the lecture for someone else.
Roger that. Giving up on ya.
Outstanding article. Five stars for you for writting it.
With appreciation,
Harry
96
I don’t usually reply to posts but I will in this case.