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because we have been shooting ourselves in the foot, repeatedly, for years. So there are likely no quick fixes.
Rough figures:
We have 27 million people out of work. If we can put 20 million of them back to work we drop to a 5-6% unemployment rate.
As it stands, there seems to be a good chance that we will stay above 8% out to perhaps 2020. And that is assuming we can create enough jobs every month, on average, to equal the number of jobs that were created every month throughout the 90's. Not likely, and we are still negative. We need 150K or more per month just to stay even, as far as I can tell.
So first will be a government program which employs 10 million people doing volunteer work, clearing park lands, rebuilding infrastructure, roads, etc. They get one year. Probably will pay them 20-30,000, put them on a government health plan at no cost. They would need to attend classes that show them where there money is going when they spend it, and who it will benefit. i.e., if you buy it from China, it costs less and doesn't pay for your kid to go to school, or pay for the roads you use on a family vacation. I won't tell them where to spend it, but I want them to know they are making choices. I figure if soup kitchens can make you sit and listen to an hour of really bad preaching, I can ask you to sit for a hour or two a week to deliberate on ways to help your self and your country. Especially if I am providing a job. That will inject money which creates demand into the economy.
College level business classes in incubators that create new small businesses for perhaps 2 million people, also paid. Maybe manufacturing classes, learn how to work with the technologies of the future - solar, nano, nuclear, water, agriculture, biotech. They can focus into the areas they feel are most promising. They have to be at least 30 years old. I would like to limit it to homeowners, but probably can't. There would be some support as these people move out and create their own manufacturing concern or other business.
That's about 500 or so billion dollars. Not cheap, but so far less than the first TARP program which insured a lot of very hefty bonuses for less people. As that money gets spent
I would invest a couple hundred billion into rebuilding small manufacturing operations with newer equipment that could compete here, run as ESOPS (along the lines of Springfield Remanufacturing) staffed by people who can be trained to take on ownership in the company - from the janitor up. CEO, COO, etc positions are limited as to their income, say 4-5 times the amount of the next lower managment level.
I often read here that 15% of the people have 85% of the wealth - I would tax some of it away to build other people up.
I would raise taxes on corporations with 500 or more workers, with a break for those who don't lay anyone off for the next year.
This would take a heavy duty public relations campaign, but I think it is doable. We have to break the monopolies up a bit. Walmart, Cargill, others are terribly efficient, but bad for working people.
I would try to figure out a way to reduce our footprint in our current wars. We supplied the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan weapons to fight the Soviets years ago, and when they defeated them we left them and it turned into the mess we are dealing with today. We need to regain our trust in the people (who, frankly, will get rid of the Taliban if they have an option) and begin to reduce our spending. Fire most of the contractors, and that includes many of the contractors that work as civilians today - people fighting wars for us need to be under our command, and we as a country should not be hiring people without taking care of their retirement. We should not think we are out of the woods with the rest of the Middle East, but they are smart, resourceful people, and we can find better ways to support them, rather than encouraging a war which people join to fight against us because we are there. And there is no reason we can't use the military in a time of crisis to build roads and support themselves and their country at home.
I would have an office of job stimulation that did nothing but support state employment services, business incubators, virtually any publicly owned effort that worked to help create businesses or employ people.
The stimulus is just a year or so, and we will have to do something the next, and the next, etc. But if we don't the alternative may be much worse, such as watching our economy go slowly downhill while China and other countries become the market.
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