A Day for Labor
Labor Day is the bookend on the opposite end of summer from its holiday beginning, Memorial Day.
July Fourth is its early peak, with the promise of many long light-filled days ahead. But Labor Day is summer’s last gasp, the moment I dreaded as a child because it marked the finish of vacation and the start of the school year. Spiffy new clothes, a shiny bookbag, freshly sharpened pencils, and the promise of beautiful autumn leaves’ arrival were nice. But they couldn’t make up for the fact that a new school year was beginning. Where oh where had the summer gone?
Now let’s celebrate the fact that we don’t have to worry about that anymore—except, perhaps, for the teachers among you.
As for politics—Obama will celebrate the holiday by speaking at a union function in Milwaukee. He’s one of the most union-friendly presidents in history, so at least the crowd will know he’s sincere. Soon, as part of a new economic proposal, he will ask for $50 billion dollars to improve public infrastructure.
But wait a minute—didn’t we just do something like that as part of the hated stimulus bill? Is this not a perfect example of sending good money after bad? Does Obama really think that members of Congress running for re-election are going to be eager to vote yea on this one? And most importantly, does he not realize that the temporary jobs it will create are not what the nation needs most—-that people want government to stop its anti-business stance and to create a climate that will encourage the private sector to hire more permanently?
And Obama’s anemic proposal for a $100 million tax credit for businesses that develop new technologies will hardly do the trick, either. Obama’s focus has been so profoundly off, his emphasis so transparently wrong, his delay in offering any sort of meaningful relief so protracted in the face of mounting crises, that Americans do not trust him—and rightly so—whether they think him a fool, a knave, or both.
[ADDENDUM: Hey folks—I forgot to wish you a Happy Labor Day! So consider it wished.]
[ADDENDUM II: The tax credit is for $100 billion; not so anemic. But still not inclined to do the trick, for the aforementioned reasons.]
I suspect this so called stimulus is vote buying for at risk democrat districts
Happy Labor Day!
I’ve had a fairly productive weekend. I mowed the lawn on Saturday and cleaned the kitchen on Sunday (well, most of it).
So far today I haven’t done anything. I could finish cleaning the kitchen or go outside and do the edging and weed-whacking, which I hate hate HATE. Or I could continue to do nothing. Decisions, decisions…
This has been a good weekend for yard work, though, with the mild daytime temperatures and downright cool crisp evenings. I should have taken better advantage of it. Give me 60º over 90º any day. I’d rather put on a sweater than sweat.
My question:
Will there be restrictions on the funds so that those working on the improvements are limited to union members? Given that union membership is somewhere around 7% of the labor force, that’s a pretty limited stimulus…!
The I-man thinks this stuff is just another Annenberg Challenge. It’s magic, money that just appears, which he doles out, to zero effect save transient applause.
There’s an excellent Labor Day post at the Market Ticker:
Why Do You Labor?
“”And Obama’s anemic proposal for a $100 million tax credit for businesses that develop new technologies””
These govt types actually believe they help create and guide technologies. We wouldn’t have electricity yet had the know everything/do nothings ran the 20th century like they’re trying to run this one.
And happy labor day to all!
Meanwhile in Britain we’re looking at 25% cuts in Government Departments spending in the next budget and the Chancellor has said he wants £4 in cuts for each £1 in increased taxes and to permanently shrink the size of the state. A little different huh?
SteveH Says:
September 6th, 2010 at 2:45 pm
I’ve said before that if aviation had been run by the government from the early days, we would now have a giagantic triplane, with eight propeller-driven engines and a crew of twenty (all government employees). It would fly at a maximum speed of 90 mph and we would still be looking forward to the first transatlantic flight.
“If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in five years there’s be a shortage of sand.” This sentence is erroneosly ascribed to Milton Friedman, but actually this is an old Soviet joke. In its original form it was this: “Is it possible to build socialism in Sahara? – Yes, but in five years there will be shortage of sand”.
Christina Hoff Summers claims that much of the original stimulus was diverted from actual infrastructure and actual unemployed people to “human infrastructure” and leftist special interests. In particular, she states that leftist feminist lobbying was heeded to the disadvantage of males who had lost traditional jobs.
suek,
The Davis-Bacon Act of 1931 requires that federally funded projects pay “prevailing” wages. As a practical matter that means union wages. That also means that for a given amount of federal money, you will get fewer jobs than if wages were set by supply and demand. Similarly, a high minimum wage increases youth unemployment. Democrats and their voters don’t understand these things or pretend not to.
“A Day for Labor ”
And the nation takes off work to celebrate.
Asking for $50B and getting it through Congress before the mid-term election are two different things. Obama’s fellow Democrats are distancing themselves from him and his policies as fast as they can. Let’s hope that he fails to gain sufficient support to squander more taxpayer money.
It is remarkable that we have a President who won’t even make a public appearance anymore. Attendence at his staged quasi-public events has to be controlled to insure that he is not shouted down from the podium. It is truly sad that the POTUS is afraid of the public, and will only appear in front of diehard union and academic groups.
billm99uk, most people here applaud the fact that your new government is moving in the right direction to save your economy. Now if we could only get our politicians to see the light!
Huan and Tom are on target. The goal is to stay in power. The method is to give things to people. I’m reading Kaplan’s book about the Balkans, and it all sounds pretty familiar.
It kept nagging at me that sometime in the fairly recent past, a huge highway bill was passed. It didn’t take much of a google search to confirm my recollection was right. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/07/29/politics/main712780.shtml
Yes, in July of 2005, a 300 BILLION act was passed. Here’s how CBS described it:
“(CBS/AP) Congress on Friday passed sweeping highway and mass transit legislation that will send nearly $300 billion to the states to build and fix roads, create thousands of new jobs and – lawmakers hope – save lives and cut hours wasted in traffic jams.”
So, what the heck did that money buy us? Seems like the taxpayers are constant schmucks.
I wish every GOPer would make this point about this huge highway bill from just a couple of years ago. Grrr….
Neo,
This is totally OT, but I just found this color footage of Churchill during the war. He’s only in a short bit, but still the film does take you back into his world in those terrible days.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newsvideo/7980357/Rare-colour-footage-of-Winston-Churchill-and-King.html
Hope you had a great Labor Day.
The above link to the Churchill WWII clip featured a song that was haunting in its simplicity and message. I particularly like the vocal and piano arrangement. Anyone know if it’s available? I could only find poor version on ITunes.
After reading a few articles about this, I conclude that it is not going to pass and even the president knows it is not going to pass BUT it allows him to blame Republicans for blocking his “great ideas” to help the economy.
The president today took shots at his political counterparts while the goonion members howled, then he had the audacity to complain that his enemies talk about him like a dog.
My god, what an imbecilic, hypocritical, tone-deaf, crybaby pathetic excuse of a president we have.
It sounds like the type of infrastructure jobs The One is talking about will require permitting, real engineering and a bid process. Work of that type won’t be ready for actual construction for at least one to two years at the earliest. How is that supposed to help the current unemployment situation? But then I’m not a politician, and they know best.
One to two years? Third Coast, the environmental studies and permissions will take twice that.
“”then he had the audacity to complain that his enemies talk about him like a dog.””
I’d like to see Boehner respond with “Don’t be knockin dogs Mr President. My two weiner dogs know enough about economics to get ticked off if i gave away their hard earned treats”.
We need a laziness day.
“We need a laziness day.”
There already is one. For democrats that is called Election Day.