We need a jobs programs to get us out of this mess

[Fresh_Start]

A few millions jobs created by government right now

People won't spend if they are unemployed or afraid of becoming unemployed.
Only jobs will solve the confidence gap.

[Coyote_Bandit]

1. Too bad

the stimulus package didn't include substantial additional funding for SBA loans with generous terms and subsidized health care for new and small business.

Much of the necessary job creation will be from folks who don't have a job and can't get and job and require an income and decide they have nothing to lose by trying to make a go of it. If ever they needed support in that endeavor it is now.

[Fresh_Start]

2. Thats what my husband wants to do

but I'm thinking about the 50% of small businesses that fail in ordinary times....and really worried about doing it was everything is so crazy.

I'm wishing one of us had a 'safe' government job.

[Coyote_Bandit]

7. SBA loans usually are not made available

unless a reasonable amount of research and planning has been done to insure at least some expectation of success.

And, admittedly, I am thinking of folks who are going to be starting businesses because they have no other alternatives to earn an income.

[Deja Q]

8. They are not 'safe'.

I know people laid off...

[liberalmuse]

3. Absolutely!

People are not going to spend freely as long as they're reading about tens of thousands of layoffs every day. I would love a shiny, high tech, Sci fi high rail system from coast to coast, city to city. Why can't we hire people for that? It is not only great PR, but people will use it. I lived in Salt Lake City, where for years, people resisted the high speed rail. Once we got it, people loved it and now they can't get enough of it. They want more, more, more! It's really weird, since I'd been voting for it for several years before it finally passed. Transportation is a HUGE deal right now, and if we could get trains that will make the trains in Europe seem outdated, that would be an incredible boost for our economy.

[Fresh_Start]

4. It could possibly even help the housing problem

when they use eminent domain to buy and demolish housing in the path of the rail.

If course, if they do it to me, I would be inconsolable.

[Fire1]

6. But just think of the money you'll get! I know it's not 'everything' but it

sure helps.

[elocs]

5. Well, I would love to have a job and it doesn't have to be the perfect well paying job.

When I have money coming in it is much easier to deal with things than when I have no money coming in.

[Coyote_Bandit]

9. .

:hug:

I'm right there with you. I have this constant gnawing in the pit of my stomach and trouble sleeping. It is all about money and its many tentacles. I don't begin to know what to do and I am fairly certain there is no such thing as good advice in these uncertain times. Even in the best of times I didn't stand out in the crowd. It's hard for me to think good thoughts right now. I know I'm not alone. Neither are you.

[elocs]

10. My trouble sleeping is directly related to not working.

I have worked for years on the 2nd or 3rd shift so I would sleep within an hour or two of getting home and it was easy to get to sleep because I was tired from work. Not working, I am not tired and so when I go to bed my mind just races. Next thing I know it's 1 a.m., 2 a.m., 3 a.m. until I decide just to get up. Then I'm dead tired by 7 a.m. and end up sleeping the day away.

Luckily I need so very little just to get by that I could survive even just making minimum wage, but there are really simply no jobs.