U.S. No Longer the Great Job Creation Machine

[keep_it_real]

In the 1970s and 1980s, it took as little as one year from the end of a recession to add back the lost jobs. After an eight-month downturn that ended in March of 1991, jobs came back in 23 months. After the downturn from the dot-com bust in 2001, it took 38 months. This time, it could take five years or more to recover all of the 8 million-plus jobs lost since the "Great Recession" began.

Employment will continue to fall into 2010, and perhaps through it. If the jobless rate peaks at around 11 percent, we will be lucky to begin a proper jobs recovery before the end of 2010.

What accounts for the growing lag times? Fundamentally, it is that households and businesses are stepping back from spending levels that were artificially pumped up by debt.

http://www.usnews.com/articles/opinion/mzuckerman/2009/12/04/mort-zuckerman-us-no-longer-the-great-job-creation-machine.html?PageNr=1

[Union Yes]

1. Dems pissed away a golden opportunity to repeal Nafta.

[keep_it_real]

2. Should we blame Obama?

[Union Yes]

3. In part, yes! ALL Dems share the blame. nt

[Nikki Stone1]

4. In the 1970s and 80s we didn't have NAFTA.

Why can't we talk about the elephant in the living room?

[Sonicmedusa]

5. BINGO!

Far too many Americans have a huge disconnect about shopping at Wallyworld for cheap shit (and I mean cheaply-made shit, not cheaply-priced shit, because it is not)and their family, friends and neighbors not being able to find jobs.

When the powers that be are talking about jobs, they are talking about service and retail jobs, not production jobs.

We need to keep talking about The Elephant.

[Nikki Stone1]

8. Maybe we a need a NAFTA primer thread and updates

So few people get this.

[WeCanWorkItOut]

6. There's the problem that American workers "cost too much"

That's partly due to the underpriced yuan, the Chinese currency,
which makes their goods artificially cheap.

There's also the problem that American health care costs too much.
One of the helpful things about 1988-1996 was that
health inflation was going down, so effective wages went up.

Sadly, labor has always let health care inflation go on.
The good thing about the Sanjay Gupta article was that it showed people,
yes, doctors and hospitals can be greedy. Waste happens.
But somehow the unions didn't want to believe that.
Maybe it's because their elite advisors never wanted to tell them.

But now they are trying to repair things in a big hurry,
and many working people will be hurt.
Will it help jobs? Probably not.

[astral]

7. The jobs that have gone overseas are not coming back. n/t

[Sonicmedusa]

9. And Why?

Because we are not rioting in the streets DEMANDING them back.