What would be the best jobs program to put people to work?

[kentuck]

First of all, we should look out for the women. It is a disgrace that they have to pick up arms and travel to foreign countries to fight like some mercenary. They should have opportunity here at home. This is a matter of family values.

Why not educate them as doctors and nurses and pay them to go to school. They can pay us back when they finish their education by agreeing to work two to four years at a community health center or a hospital. This will assure that we are willing and able to take care of the health needs of our citizenry. Of course, men would be eligible for this same education, also.

Almost every street and every road in this country will be in need of some repair before this year is out. This would be an ideal job for young men and women that like to work outdoors. Also, we need people to keep our parks clean and to make trails so all of America can enjoy our great park systems.

It doesn't matter how much it cost. Whatever they make, they will put it back into our economy. And that is what is important. We cannot depend on the greedy corporations or the Republicans to create jobs. We are in this altogether and there are many jobs that people can do to make our cities and our country better.

[Skittles]

1. stop pimping our jobs off to cheap-ass overseas fucks

[kentuck]

2. That would be a good start.

I would agree.

[OhioChick]

23. +1000 n/t

[Mopar151]

46. In exactly those words!

Go, Skittles! Kick some ass!

[cilla4progress]

72. It's not THEIR fault...

I wouldn't call them "overseas fucks." They're just trying to make a living too.

It's the man, doncha know?

[grahamhgreen]

82. Bingo!

[HeresyLives]

3. 'Our' jobs, eh?

You own them outright I gather?

Where was THAT written?

[kentuck]

5. Yes, we do.

We, the People. We, the fucking People!

[HeresyLives]

11. You don't 'own' the jobs to begin with.

There are 6 billion other people in the world, and jobs go to the best qualified.

No country 'owns' them.

[kentuck]

12. You are talking about jobs that make "widgets" for corporations...

I am talking about jobs that give our people fulfillment and makes our country a better place to live, such as doctors and nurses and construction worker and artists.

[HeresyLives]

13. I'm talking about any job.

America doesn't own them.

[kentuck]

15. Yes. We do own them.

We own the public lands, we, the people. We paid for the roads and streets in our Federal Highway system so we own them. Did you think they were made by a corporation or big business??

[HeresyLives]

16. Jobs go to the best qualified.

That may not always be an American.

[kentuck]

17. These jobs would go to people in our country.

They would be American jobs. We don't need the Chinese or the Japanese or the Taiwanese or anyone else to fix our roads or to take care of our people. We are not into it for the profit that can be generated. That is for lousy capitalists.

[HeresyLives]

18. Jobs go to the best qualified.

That may not always be an American.

[kentuck]

20. What world are you living in??

We are talking about unemployed Americans whose lives are deeply affected by these economic conditions brought on by Wall Street and the Big Bankers. Do you think we don't have a right to protect ourselves from these bastards??

[JVS]

30. Canada, but really from the world of Thomas Friedman's Golded Straightjacket/dildo

[JVS]

28. Repetition doesn't make it true. Jobs go to the least expensive. Qualification is secondary

[Mopar151]

49. Quality is tertiary

Comes after "fealty of the serf". A lot to the reason this stuff (skilled work) is outsourced is that managers don't have to deal with workers who are their intelllectual and social equals, instead dealing with an intermediary whose job description can be summed up as ASS KISSER. To put it another way, they feel more in control as a customer than a producer. It's very easy to be unreasonably dmanding to a Mfg. rep., much harder to face a shoprat as a social equal to decide if you should buy a $150K machine, and absolutely mind boggling to spend another $20K on tooling, and $15k on plant services and concrete work so that it may run at it's best.

[Greyhound]

37. LOL! what are you on and will you share?

:rofl:

[Skittles]

56. I can guarantee you, Greyhound

the only fucktards who defend offshoring are those folk who are benefitting from it, the country be damned - the same folk who claim the most "qualified" are hired say they cannot find enough "talent" in America - they're fucking LIARS

[treestar]

73. What if it is the other way round though?

A lot of DU is as if Americans are never hired someplace else - and that other companies never invest here.

Though someone did post on DU once about a foreign company putting a factory here.

I met someone who had a job where I think it was a British company, put their customer service in the U.S.!

So when I see the bellyaching I sometimes wonder if people are seeing only one side of it and overlooking that it goes both ways and around the world. Every U.S. company that moves operations somewhere else gets in the news, but people tend to ignore another country moving operations here.

[HughBeaumont]

57. Laissez-Fail Cocaine.

Yeah, I guess sarcastically pushing the buttons of those who want better lives for their families and fellow citizens with dope-addled ramblings straight from the books of Marc Andreesen, David Dreier or Thomas Friedman must be a constructive use of some people's time. Can't imagine why.

What's in it for free-trade stooges such as this one to cheerlead the destruction of another country's economy . . . particularly one who's HOME country is inordinately TIED to?

[glitch]

65. No thanks! Bad trip, who needs it. nt

[DisgustedInMN]

70. What sort of ...

... an asshole goes on a Democratic site and rips on American labor?

[ChicagoSuz219]

52. Hardly the case...

...it goes to the cheapest labor, including young children.

[Skittles]

55. OH FUCKING BITE ME PLEASE

I have trained overseas folk and I know who they replaced - THERE IS NO COMPARISON IN QUALIFICATION - NONE WHATSOEVER

[Bitwit1234]

25. USA JOBS....BUT IT WORKED FOR FDR AND HE TURNED

THE COUNTRY AROUND. why not try the same thing. My father was 21 back in 1932 and could not find a job. The great depression remember. By FDR putting people to work he got a job, he was a carpenter, building houses and that housing community is still standing today. It is in good shape. A lot better than some house built today. THEY USED AMERICAN MATERIAL AND AMERICAN HELP. They were proud of their work. My father made a decent living and raised six children. And if we use American labor and American ingenuity we will be able to raise us out of bush's mess.

It doesn't have to be all construction. How about putting people to work to try to find alternative energy, build better electronics. It is about damn time we stopped sending them overseas. AND WHEN WE DO....KICK CORPORATE ASS OUT OF THE MIX SO THEY DON'T GET THEIR HANDS ON SOMETHING AND TAKE IT OVERSEAS.

I think anything developed in this country with taxpayer money should stay here and if any of the robber barons try to steal it, make it a federal offense. And then because a corporation is a person, lock the whole damn company up.

[kentuck]

31. I like your idea...

If a corporation is a person and they break the law, then they all are criminally negligent and should go to jail. Put it into the law.

[reformist]

67. We need MAJOR money to go into research on RENEWABLE ENERGY and BATTERIES.

[reformist]

68. As for the shovel-ready projects, we need a new INTERSTATE RAIL SYSTEM.

[reformist]

66. In a way, yes.

If the industries lost are essential to our nation's independence and well-being, we have every right to get them back. We have an obligation to take back any vital industries that have been completely outsourced/offshored/whatever over the past 20 years.

[shraby]

4. Commission artwork and books of all kinds. Those

people need employment too.

[endless october]

6. stop outsourcing. if we have to tariff, so be it.

we need to bring manufacturing back and do whatever it takes to get it done.

go out tomorrow and try to buy clothing made in America at any price.

the fact that you will have a difficult time doing so is a real indicator of a problem.

[kentuck]

8. We can call ourselves, We, the People, INC.

That should make us legal and eligible to create our own jobs and we don't have to ship them overseas. They are for the people - not some greedy corporation. All the money made would go back into the economy and as we learned in Economics 101, each dollar spent would be worth approximately seven dollars in our entire economy. It's basic.

[treestar]

75. Why does it have to be manufacturing though?

Educated people can do higher level jobs than that.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

7. Single Payer Healthcare!

The cost of providing benefits is the single greatest disincentive to private sector job creation,

I have watched first hand in the room as foreign businesses abandoned plans for a US based subsidiary due to healthcare costs.

[Occulus]

9. High-speed rail and fiberoptic data lines coast to coast. n/t

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

58. We don't need high speed rail and we have more dark fibre than we know what to do with

[Caretha]

59. + 1000

[Marr]

10. Fitting solar panels on public items, like streetlights or bus stops.

That sort of thing would, I think, be a good use of money. There's plenty of public space catching sunlight that we might as well harvest. That kind of thing would be great for jobs, and would be great as a subsidy for alternative energy companies.

[kentuck]

14. That is an excellent idea !

And think of the energy saved!

[sharesunited]

19. Government should commence and own new enterprises.

Provide goods and services and uphold full employment as a value which is greater than showing a profit.

If there is a profit, great! Sell shares and partially spin the company off, while ensuring that full employment continues to be preeminent.

Do this over and over and over. Provide competition with existing private sector businesses in every area of the economy.

[kentuck]

21. Look at the great job the Big Banks, Wall Street, and the Corporations...

have done.

They have destroyed peoples lives and livelihood.

We, the People, are the government. We can make whatever rules we can get our Congress to pass.

[sharesunited]

24. Be careful about confiscation, though. It is tempting to do...

but it undercuts the formation of capital.

Just approach job creation as new business incubation.

[kentuck]

29. If our capitalist system is incapable of creating jobs...?

then we have no choice. They are failing miserably.

[sharesunited]

35. It is just hampered by fear and an acute lack of resources.

Be bold and repel cries of socialism.

Starting new enterprise will ALWAYS be less objectionable than seizing existing businesses.

[kentuck]

38. No. We should not have to die or starve because corporations cannot create jobs...

for them. It doesn't matter what they call it. We call it taking care of the American people. Let them take their jobs to India and China and Vietnam if they want. We don't have to buy their products. Don't let the door hit them in the ass on the way out.

[sharesunited]

44. Profitability is their highest objective. Not full employment.

It may appear to them to be the correct value system for their paradigm.

Yes, if you can boycott them by obtaining your goods and services from government sponsored competitors, the punishment you long to inflict upon them will be duly administered.

It is not achieved by seizing, but by shunning.

[kentuck]

47. You call it "punishment".

I call it looking out for our people. Or should we just live day to day on faith, as if it is some type of capitalist religion, that eventually they will provide everyone with a job in order to survive? I do not have that much faith or that much trust.

[sharesunited]

48. You are expressing the sentiments expressed by many during the Great Depression.

Yet somebody saw the good in keeping an ember of private capital alive.

And it served the nation very nicely there for awhile.

Alas, we are in hard times again. Government has already stepped in but needs to do more. Creatively.

Government sponsored and incubated business enterprise having full employment as its highest constant objective.

We can turn our backs on the status quo as long as we have someplace to go.

What we are talking about here is constructing someplace to go.

[JVS]

32. I disagree with selling off shares. That's privatizing the profit.

Use the profit to fund social programs and pay down the deficit.

[kentuck]

33. I would agree...

Put all the profits back into more jobs so our country can work less and have more leisure time. Corporations do not fit into the scheme. They can stay in business and hire whomever they want but if they fire them, they may not get them back. They will have a a better job a waiting.

[sharesunited]

34. We don't need to sell all of it off. And if it's THAT profitable, launch another new competitor!

Any profit earned by a company wholly owned by the People amounts to a 100 percent tax.

Definitely a nice situation.

Enterprise always carries risk though, so if you can lay off some of the risk on private investors without surrendering complete control over the mission of full employment, I tend to favor doing so.

[kentuck]

43. Right now, we need jobs for 15-20 million people.

Forty-three states saw their unemployment rate go up last month. This is serious, people. Either businesses and corporations start hiring people or we will have to do something about it.

[jotsy]

22. Kicked to score for OP

who sent that heckler down well!

[JVS]

26. Assert public ownership of the companies and operate them to the benefit of the people

[dkf]

27. Fund the sba. Big time.

Big business isn't the driver of jobs. It is small business. We need to provide big business advantages to small business so it is not such a risk or hardship to make things happen. This will allow for innovation as people with great new ideas have a chance to try them out.

Also this would allow people to benefit from the fruits of their labor instead of having to share the equity with some vc firm.

People do have talents to share. We need to find a way to get them exposure so they can make a living.

[Greyhound]

36. Large-scale, low/no-interest loans to small and micro businesses is where I'd start. n/t

[treestar]

76. That would help too

[notesdev]

39. Rebuild our industrial base

Can't depend on the government to put everyone to work, it's inefficient in the extreme and just as likely to be prone to corruption - didn't work for the Soviets and won't work for us.

Adjust laws/tariffs in order to make it a better deal to build industry here than to ship it abroad, won't even cost the taxpayer a dime to do it, and we'll get more jobs than we know what to do with.

[grahamhgreen]

40. TRADE BARRIERS, TARRIFS, PROTECTIONISM, PERIOD.

[here_is_to_hope]

62. +1! eom

[Chisox08]

41. Any program must have a buy America clause in it

All materials must be bought from an American own company and it must be produced in America

[jtuck004]

42. jobs program

First look out for the women? I thought they fought hard for the right to be considered good enough to do this? Now you want to take that away? And what makes men worth less?

So we educate whomever at 100% for 2 to 4 years and when they finish they refuse to give contraception or perform abortions? We are already paying 70% of everyone's education, and that is what is happening. You could try and limit it as a condition, but I would bet big money that you would lose.

Dr's and nurses are way too limiting. We need civil, bio, and other engineers, people who are well-versed in earth science, ways to figure out how the earth is going to live as the population is becoming so much greater every day, maybe farmers who can grow food (all the processed food needs to be replaced with fresh fruits and vegetables, but there are not near enough farms to do this for everyone now if oil prices spike and stay there, which is a very real possibility. The model for the educating of adults needs to change drastically - it is priced completely out of the range of millions of people that are quite smart enough to do the work - simply use the internet and educate them.

Woodrow Wilson suggested that we have to limit a liberal arts education to only a few, (they would be the leaders) and train the much larger group to more technical ends so they can do the work. Does that still apply, or could we live if _everyone_ got a good liberal education and a little tech schooling? What do we need for the future to run the world and the economy?

I do agree with you strongly that the government can provide work. Work provides a ton of dignity and order which people could use right now. It would be interesting to hire a whole new class of "federal employees" - even temporary. That would provide work, which people desperately need for the benefits work provides: order, structure, dignity, and opportunity for growth. And what you said about all that money flowing back into the economy is absolutely true - but it has to come from taxes (corporate or personal) and that money could have been used to start a small business You have to be careful how you pay for a whole new raft of government jobs.

But government can't create profit, which, at least so far, is what business uses to expand. Business needs support to create jobs - but mostly they need demand for products, which might come with new products, and hiring people to make them so there is some money flowing. Those would be profit-making positions (As opposed to what the government can do). Maybe hundreds of government sponsored incubators where people can develop small manufacturing businesses (electric cars, solar panels, bakeries, ultra-capacitors or better batteries - the things we will need in the future.

Making it easier to create community banks would help to, and work in direct competition to the multinationals that are killing us right now. Money expansion in the economy comes from the bank loaning out the assets. Since they are not doing that, they are simply sucking up the supply through interest - especially credit cards. We desperately need small banks to be making loans to small business in the community.

[kentuck]

45. First of all...

Nobody said men were worth less. But, it's a simple rule of nature, women make better mothers. Children need mothers and fathers. But, we should hang our heads in shame that we send our young women to war, to be raped and abused, or maimed for life, or killed, and leaving young children behind to fend for themselves. It makes me ashamed.

By the way, the government has no need to take the job of any business. They only need to fill the jobs that corporations cannot or will not fill. Otherwise, we must content ourselves to having large numbers of unemployed and homeless amongst us. Which would you choose?

[jtuck004]

51. Not to be picky, but...

Last I checked, you have to be a woman to BE a mother, so I would have to grant you that one. But it is no worse to be a single father whose children are left behind. I have seen no data that says a mother makes a better single parent. And to give anything other than our total respect and support to women who I assume were were competent and knowledgeable when they signed up would seem, to me, to be disrespectful. Rape and brutality should be stopped, but dropping back a hundred years and holding women out as a class that must be protected because of their children seems wrong, and doesn't say much for the choices they made.

I do not agree that a woman soldier serving while her children are at home is worse than a young man serving whether either of them have children at home or not. War is sometimes necessary, (ask the people who fought WWII), ugly, and tragic, so awful that words really don't describe it. And while we could send women home, where is the justice for the civilian men, women, and, of course, children being killed by us in the countries we are occupying? They are not active participants in any fight, but they are dying from our bombs and bullets, even as we sit typing on a keyboard. A better idea would be to stop this war unless we are certain is is necessary to our defense, and I don't believe it is. Having lived through Vietnam, when we established "free-fire" zones and killed anything that moved - enemy, friend, man, woman, child, water buffalo - I have real trouble separating out any class as more deserving of being protected. I think we\they are all worthwhile.

The choice about jobs you pose is a false one. The government must tax people to pay workers, the money doesn't just fall out of the sky. Taxes can only come from wages or profits, from labor (yay labor!!). Any government job requires, by definition, several working taxpayers to support it, even if they are just picking up leaves in the park. We have one of the most creative, strongest, and easily the wealthiest economy ever. Without that economy to support what you are asking there is no choice, just increasing debt,essentially the title to the ways we produce things. The economy we have right now, largely a gift of the past 8 years or so, has increased our interest payments and may soon exceed a very important threshold. At that point the money you hold in your pocket will buy about 1/5 of what it buys today. Unless we create real jobs, not government work, we won't have to worry about the trails in the parks - they will be full of hungry and homeless people. Our debt as a percentage of GDP has not been this big since around WWII. I don't know how old you are, but if you are looking forward to needing Medicare or SSI in the next 10 years, you might want to find another support system...fun times ahead

[kentuck]

61. Government spending bring more money into the Treasury...

than is spent. It is arguable whether or not it brings more into the Treasury than a job from a business because business subsidies and taxcuts have to be deducted also.

[ChicagoSuz219]

53. The military is all volunteer. n/t

[Mopar151]

50. Use some of our near-retirement, semi-retired top shelf people

From mental health, the skilled trades, and education to retrain our management!!!!!! It's bad out there, folks - the student evaluations from the teachers in such programs, if coupled with feedback from the workplace, will send people to treatment, and even jail, in droves!
I was discussing this with a friend who'd done a 39 month stretch in Federal, and I'd been through a couple of "family companies" - our conclusion - There are many people in this world who should never be in charge of another human being.

[ChicagoSuz219]

54. There are currently training & re-training programs in place...

...many of which are free to take. Now's the time for people to learn a new skill/trade so they'll be ready when the new jobs come.

[blindpig]

60. Direct government employment

WPA, CCC, with good wages and health care. There's plenty that needs being done. This trickle down bullshit accomplishes little to nothing.

Socialist, you bet. Do I think there's any chance of this happening? Nope, but it is what is needed.

[leftstreet]

69. +1

[The Straight Story]

63. Women are actually doing better than men in this market (nt)

[Vinca]

64. The best jobs program is not a program, but a tax.

A massive tax on companies that outsource American jobs. Given how much we consume there should be plenty of jobs in this country.

[jpljr77]

71. Let's build a billion solar panels.

And install them on homes and commercial and government buildings.

If there is not enough demand here for them, we'll sell them to Spain and Dubai.

[treestar]

74. Education would be good

Put people through trade schools - the government could subsidize that and limit it to jobs the DOL expects will be needed. They know which jobs they are by the applications to employ aliens - in fact there is a training fee for H visas - the people applying for H visas had to pay a fee to be used to train Americans for those jobs.

Or they could go back to the low interest loans - Republicans came into office and cut back on those, from what I understand.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

77. What about the baby boomers? We are the most educated generation in history.

I have a BA in biology and a JD in law. No jobs were offered to me for either one of those qualifications. Nine years of college that's totally useless.

Lots of people are already well educated and our society throws them away. The idea that if you get a good education, you can find a good job is BULLSHIT.


Also, we need a program to hire artists. Painters, writers, playwrights, dancers, musicians, composers, etc. like the WPA.

[Berry Cool]

81. Yes. Not all unemployment is due to people being uneducated or lacking skills.

Not in a climate in which people with college degrees and years of experience are going begging for jobs. It's not all just a matter of "training" or "retraining" the unemployed. We are not all laid-off widget makers with high school diplomas who need to learn how to operate a computer.

[old mark]

78. We desperatly need work on bridges, roads, and railways. We must get started

installing solar and alternative energy equipment, insulating buildings, repairing water mains - many over 100 years old- and many more physical labor as well as civil and construction engineering and design jobs here in the US.
They can't export this stuff, folks.

mark

[RT Atlanta]

79. Interconnectivity - Green Retrofit

Some groups in Atlanta are pointed in the right direction:

http://www.beltline.org/

http://millionmilegreenway.org/

[Berry Cool]

80. Not all of us unemployed women have the math and science skills

required to work in health care.

For example, me.

[grahamhgreen]

83. Break up Walmart and the big corps into individual entities.