Here are some of the great quotes that came out of yesterday's panel on job creation and what is working.
"We're here to talk about, I believe, the most critical grassroots issue in America today. It's not just how you find a job, and get enough jobs to cover the people who don't have them, but how we prepare this country for the future and restore a sense of confidence... Having a job is not just about economic security. It's also about emotional and cultural security for this country." ~ Tom Brokaw, panel moderator and former NBC Nightly News anchor
"Ladies and gentlemen, we want to tell you that we believe in the entrepreneurial spirit of the American population. So we're offering a $1 million prize for the best scalable ideas for how to grow small business, particularly to hire young people. We're going to do this competition virally; watch for us on The Huffington Post and Twitter. We really think that those ideas are out there. We've used prizes before to galvanize incredibly great ideas, and then we're going to take them to scale." ~ Judith Rodin, CEO of the Rockefeller Foundation
"Whenever I talk to young people, I always talk to them about finding something that they care enough about that they can build the energy behind it to acquire the skills they need. To follow that passion down the road toward something which is going to be great for them. Because it'll lead to the education, the right decisions, and the right mistakes, to get them to the right answers in the end." ~ Allen Blue, co-founder of LinkedIn
"Every baby boom generation person who has to give a college commencement talk uses the phrase 'follow your passion.' But that's why no one has written a book calling us the greatest generation. The second point is to not just follow your passion, but something larger than yourself. It ain't just about you and your damn passion. I remember talking exactly a year ago right now to Steve Jobs, who was very ill, and I asked him that question: He said, 'Yeah, we're always talking about following your passion. But we're all part of a flow of history,' he said. 'And we take things out of that flow that other people have created. And that's why our lives are so great. So you've got to put something back into the flow of history that's going to help your community, help other people, so that 20, 30, 40 years from now, even if it's a small pebble you put back in, people will say, this person didn't just have a passion, he cared about making something that other people could benefit from.'" ~ Walter Isaacson, CEO of the Aspen Institute
"We've been natural athletes as a country at starting companies, and they become big, and I'll just remind people that Microsoft was co-founded by a guy named Bill Gates, who was one person who had an idea and built a business around it. All of the businesses you see in America were built by teams of people who saw something other people didn't see. And we've become, I guess we've expected it to just happen, but the reality is the rest of the world is figuring out how to build companies, and they've looked to the United States, and we've got to step our game up in a big way." ~ Scott Case, CEO of Startup America
"I'll tell you what our biggest challenge is: we are trying to -- and we have been fighting now for a year -- to get these people's skills matched with job opportunities." ..."We're starting in the first grade to introduce kids to occupations. What does a weatherman do?... I happen to believe the good Lord created all of us to do certain things... As kids get older, they begin to find their passion." ~ John Kasich, Governor of Ohio
"The innovative spirit of American communities is alive and well all across this country, and we should be very, very proud of it. It's working." ~ Judith Rodin, CEO of the Rockefeller Foundation
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It's very simple folks, as I stated above, once the pool of people have more disposable income to spend, it will create a domino effect where everybody benefits, even the CEO's. They just wont get their obscene bonuses quite as fast. But they will get them, eventually. I'm well aware these ideas won't solve all of the problems we face as a nation, but it's a good place to start.
Also, to add any stability to the financial market, to encourage creation of jobs and a decent standard of living, the government needs to get in gear and regulate the banks with an iron fist.
Of course, there is the idea of resurrecting the WPA-CCC, but it just doesn't seem like either political party has the will to do it. So, Americans languish and suffer.
If any of these ideas were put into effect, it would create jobs. But, the big problem of any of this is, Americans will sit around and debate it for another 60 to 100 years before any action is taken. Americans like to procrastinate. In the meanwhile, the elite class rob you blind.
degrees get a job? Or should I just crawl in a corner and become as useless as I feel.
With the transition of the economy to one dominated by financial institutions, they have siphoned off so much money for the 1% and corporate coffers that there simply is not enough working capital left for the population to enjoy low unemployment. There's just no money available. Period.
The only solution is to (1) tax the wealthy to a scalable 90% after some reasonably high annual earnings/gains threshold; (2) end microsecond computerized trading in the markets; (3) tax capital gains as earnings; (4) make offshoring of assets illegal, and (5) no more too-big-to-fail in any sector of the economy.
That's the only way to get more money into the economy. The parasites of the New Gilded Age are killing America as they shop for their Gulfstream IIIs and 4th and 5th vacation homes. The economy is a finite system.
It may sound like a childish term but ultimately that’s where everything ever made or built began. A spark of imagination from America can cause a cascade of new industries,
America has to stop using the word CAN"T,because that’s when you limit yourself.
Everyone has skills even if they don't believe they do
build things out wood, metal whatever and sell them, just try to build it
or now look around at what you buy, because if you’re buying it so is everyone else
why can't we build plastic eggs with Pokémon in it?
make all construction companies install at least 40% of the proposed source of energy as solar or renewable where possible which would mean they have to retrain employees or hire outside companies .this forces construction companies to rethink energy and opens the door to renewable energy.
Offer companies rewards for building effective containment of renewable energy and when the rest of the world runs out of oil we can sell it to them.
Offer companies who produce products aboard the incentive to come back.
Give them free the old abandoned factories around the country (usually the highest unemployment)for free, give them 2 years taxes free which compensates for the investment in new machines on the condition that they hire from these areas directly ,hopefully bringing some blue collar jobs.
Why the American’s can't produce efficient battery powered only cars and sell them to other to third world countries, (why aim at America when you've got a whole world to sell them in)
Your comment.."How about electing a congress that will work with President Obama" is absolutely the fundamental problem to ALL the problems facing the US today. We have let the corporate money gain ownership of the 535 who instead of doing our bidding do the bidding of their corporate masters. I admire what Huffpo is doing here but nothing is going to change unless we the people take back Congress. What is needed is a new grassroots political party that starts after this election cycle to work to form a viable 3rd party that can start to win elections on local and state levels. You can change the political landscape one of two ways either by working within the system or "taking to the streets". Americans would never "take it to the streets" Why? Because Americans take it for granted. There is a line from an old song that says "you dont know what you've got until you lose it." People you are fast on the way to losing it. So if you dont "take to the streets " then there is only one other choice, form a grassroots political party and try to regain control from within. If you do neither then dont expect anything to "get better" and enjoy the this new form of democracy where the 99% do the bidding of the 1%.
Teachers have been saying for years that the directives comiong down from above are wrong: that we need vocational education back, that we need emphasis on PROCESS and not as much on PRODUCT, and we need the freedom to innovate at the local level.
That said, education is NOT job training, it is what you do to get people to be the best thinkers, readers, writers, etc, they can be before they prepare for a job.
And one more thing, if you are still here...
There is so much hype and emphasis on entrepreneureship as a way to get us out of our economic downturn, Fine, but not everyone can and should be this person. Not everyone is wired to be a Steve Jobs or a Bill Gates. We also need public sector people, we need service sector people, we need managers, we need workers, AND we need "big idea" people. Many people will be these things at different times in their lives. All these jobs add value to our economy.
I taught in an "urban" high school and quickly came to the realization that college IS NOT for everyone. Unfortunately all of my students seem to be placed in this tract and hence the lack of engagement in the learning process. It follows then that there should be a viable vocational tract. Likewise non entrepreneurs should be valued in this country too.
To your larger point, why must we sacrifice non-stem subjects like physical education and the Arts in order to remain competitive globally. Aren't we obligated to nurture the whole person?
I have a radical idea called Fluke Tournaments, based on Fluke - the wealth building game of accidental inventions.
Residents will play FlukeTM - the wealth building game of accidental inventions at a community group or school within 5 Detroit city neighborhood constellations. The winners of the constellations will win $500 each, free invention/ entrepreneurial training and faceoff in 1 round of gameplay to declare a Corporate Inventor Mogul - the person with the largest portfolio and a Corporate Inventor Mogul Apprentice - the person with the second largest portfolio. This Corporate Inventor Mogul will win a cash prize, $1500. Corporate Inventor Mogul Apprentice will win a cash prize, $1000. The free invention/ entrepreneurial training will provide a startup grant up to $25000 upon completion.
Fluke Tournaments will occur monthly with the City Faceoff occurring at the end of the third week of the month when those on a fixed income are struggling to survive financially. Fluke Tournaments will occur for 24 months providing players with critical thinking skills, need for inventing and entrepreneurship around an blockbuster invention. The community seeing 240 people earn $1,080,000 in their community will change its mindset about inventing and entrepreneurship. Plus a potential 120 new inventions and businesses will be created in the African American community.
Go to www.flukegame.com to set a fun engaging job creation tool.
The enterprises (both for-profit and non-profit) in the Impact Sector: fostering positive health, wealth, earth, equality and trust.
See the statistics from actual jobs data here on HuffPost: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/r-paul-herman/the-real-job-creators_b_1640523.html, that shows that positive-impact enterprises (clean energy, waste remediation, health care, education, and more) are creating 2% job growth on average, while traditional private sector jobs are declining on average.
Let's focus on building a better world to solve human, social and environmental challenges - that's where the real demand, revenue and potential profit is: Seek more Impact, position for potential positive profit.
Please keep this going and please make this top page material.
I think that there is a bunch of money overseas like from American companies and they have to pay taxes if they bring it home. Maybe they can bring back $1M tax free with the proviso that they provide a job with healthcare benefits NET
Also, we need to deport illegal aliens - BOTTOM LINE - every other country on earth does without qualms - we should too. http://www.NumbersUSA.com