Here in California, I've been calling voters, asking them to vote no on Proposition 23 -- the Texas Oil attempt to roll back our enlightened environmental law (AB32). I've been impressed both by voters' determination to defeat Proposition 23 and their reports of hard times. Many voters say they are hurting financially.
It doesn't come as a surprise. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the U.S. unemployment rate is holding at 9.6 percent. But when you add the number of "discouraged" workers, who've quit looking for employment, and the number of who are working part time because they can't find full time work, the total number of unemployed and underemployed rises to 17.1 percent. And that's probably low considering the number of people who are stuck in jobs they hate but are afraid to leave -- not to mention the number of folks who put in long hours but don't earn a living wage.
Last month the National Bureau of Economic Research declared that "the great recession" ended in June of 2009. Most Americans find that hard to believe when hard times continue. Indeed, financial guru Warren Buffett observed: "We're still in a recession... We're not gonna be out of it for a while..." Buffett defines a recession differently from the National Bureau of Economic Research, saying it ends "when real per capita gross domestic product returns to its pre-downturn level."
What Buffet didn't say is that no one can predict when real per capital gross domestic product will rebound. Berkeley economist Robert Reich believes that during the Bush Administration ordinary consumers lost such a high percentage of their buying power that they no longer have the capacity to pull the U.S. out of the recession. (Columbia economist Joseph Stiglitz agrees.)
This long-lasting recession has had four consequences: high unemployment and a steady loss of decent jobs; low-interest rates; savage restriction of credit; and rising income inequality. The gap between rich and poor Americans is increasing and the middle class is wasting away. As a consequence, ordinary consumers have less discretionary income.
The U.S. economy depends upon steady consumption by working-class Americans. Conservative economic theory incorrectly assumes that rich folks buying yachts and vacation homes catalyze the consumer economy. That's not happening; wealthy Americans have as much income as they have ever had but their purchases of Ferraris or diamonds aren't boosting the economy. Average Americans aren't consuming because they either don't have the money or are saving it because they are fearful.
Working folks aren't consuming so businesses aren't hiring. It's an understandable but deadly cycle. There's a fundamental loss of trust. That's why Americans are depressed.
Once upon a time, Americans prided themselves on their "can do" attitude. We shared the belief that no matter how difficult the problem we could solve it by banding together. That's the spirit that prevailed during World War II when America united to defeat the Axis powers. And that same spirit is still seen in communities wherever there's a hurricane or earthquake or horrific fire; we still have the capacity to form the "benevolent community" that works for the common good.
Unfortunately, as regards the jobs crisis, America has lost its "can do" attitude. Economists Paul Krugman and Robin Wells address this in their NEW YORK REVIEW article The Way Out of the Slump: "In the months immediately following the failure of Lehman Brothers, policymakers seemed to understand that we had entered a world in which the usual rules no longer applied--a world in which running huge budget deficits was an act of prudence, not folly... But that understanding faded fast. Unconventional policies are as badly needed as ever; but policymakers have lost their nerve." (Their assessment is shared by financier George Soros.)
Even before the results of the November 2nd elections are in, the U.S. is in gridlock. Politicians know we're facing hard times but they're unwilling to make the tough choices required to jump-start the economy.
It's time for liberals to roll up their sleeves and get back to first principles. We must be clear about our values and what's required to solve the jobs crisis:
Hard times require tough choices. We have to have folks in Washington who are willing to turn the U.S. in a new direction, where everyone who wants to work has a decent job. We need congress people with liberal values.
Eventually the income of Americans will be decreased so much that we will no longer be any use to business for large scale consumption. But by that time, those workers they have tried to pay those tiny salaries will have learned to organize, and they will be earning closer to a lower middle class income (for their home countries). Thus global big business will then start selling more products at a rate these fledgling consumers can afford, cutting profit margins but adjusting to their new normal of lower profits but massive sales.
Everybody learns to live with a lower middle class lifestyle except those at the top of the business pyramid, who get and stay infinitely wealthy.
Yes, Billionaires are Suffering Today -
Their poor kids can't afford that 5th Lambergini,
They can't buy their eleventh Vacation Home,
Or that 40th $10,000 suit
and the 30th $50,000 gown is now much too expensive.
Please Help a starving Billionaire Today by voting Republican
Remember Caviar ain't cheap.
Thanks for that amusing blog.
To sum it up, your solution is to create jobs by systematizing taking money from others who have worked for it. Yeah, well that certainly is a solution…it is always easier to take money from others rather than work for it yourself. It is easier to blame people for their success rather than recognize your own failure. It is easier to spend other people’s money rather than spend your own. I guess you could always take the easier path
Or, you could do as many generations of Americans have done before today you can realize that no one owes you anything and if you want to become wealthy you need to work for it like they did or their parents before them did; you could stop expecting the government to give you a handout and instead work, save and invest. Become your own owner of wealth rather than expecting charity from the government.
Margaret Thatcher said it best. ‘the problem with socialism (which is pretty much what you are advocating in your blog) is that sooner or later you always run out of other people’s money.’
Kai
Corporations hoarding money are not people.
Corporations maximizing profits without similar attention to the communities that support them are not just.
The army of lawyers and accountants finessing the tax code in ways that are not accessible to ordinary people do not create wealth for anyone but the corporation.
And this is not 1950.
This government wants to get more in the cart riding, and the ones pulling are not sure they can accept the added weight and aren't adding more people right now to their payroll as government wants the pullers to give more to each they allow in their cart
The two main oil refining companies behind the proposition -- Valero and Tesoro -- are headquartered in Texas, but both have refineries in California and they, along with the infamous Koch brothers, are providing the bulk of the financial sponsorship for ad campaigns
Green technologies will create jobs, but since renewable energy production will impact the bottom line of the fossil fuel producers, they will spend whatever resources are necessary to try to permanently kill the current plan to reduce carbon gas emissions statewide.
° AB 32 is not a pollution law, it is a global warming law, but it won't have any effect on global warming.
° CARB over-estimated diesel emmisions by 340%. What else have they over-estimated?
° Key CARB personnel caught lying about credentials and then failing to reveal this after it is discovered internally before AB 32 passed, until after AB 32 passed. What else are they lying about and with-holding?
° Sacramento State University reports estimated cost of $3734 per year per family due strictly to this AB 32.
° CARB has admitted that California alone cannot have an impact on reducing global warming and CO2 emissions.
° US EPA acknowledges that US action alone will not impact the world CO2 levels;
° LAO (CA Legislative Analyst Office) stated: CA economy at large will be adversely affected by implementation of climate-related policies that are not in place elsewhere. (Letter to Dan Logue, 13 May 2010)
° Even CARB’s own economic experts have recognized the fact that jobs will be lost because of AB 32. In fact, they recommend establishing a “Worker Transition Program” to provide assistance to people who lose their jobs because of AB 32 regulations.
When the loudest objections to any candidacy or initiative are focused on vilifying its financial backers, this often indicates that its opponents' arguments on its merits are weak.
Read it for yourself:
http://www.tradingmarkets.com/news/press-release/crai_california-air-board-to-release-new-ab-32-economic-analysis-866819.html
http://www.ucsusa.org/news/press_release/new-carb-economic-analysis-ab32-0362.html
High taxation and debt. What an economy.
We don't have any reason to be ashamed of obtaining some of the greatest advancements in public policy. We have truth and compassion on our side, and what do they have? Anger, hate, and delusion.
Come on, Dems. Get up, stand up. Stand up for [what we all know is obviously] right.
You say not to raise taxes, because companies will pass the buck onto the customer, and continue with the layoffs.
You say tax cuts "trickle down" but we've had 30 years to learn that it DOESN'T.
WPA won't work...
You say we need less regulation...but we've seen the benevolence of companies like Enron and Worldcom...
What WILL Work?
1. We have 837 military bases in 46 countries. Close all the bases in Europe and Japan. Close all the bases not presently being used directly for Afghanistan and Iraq. Imperial overstretch has bankrupted us and we don't need to support the economies of 46 overseas countries. Just our own.
2. Exit Afghanistan and Iraq as the roots of terrorism against the west are in the Israeli / Palestinian dispute, not in Iraq, Afghanistan or Pakistan.
3. Cut all federal department budgets by 10%. Cut defense by 30%.
4. Reduce salaries of all federal employees by 15%. Private sector and state employees have all had their salaries cut. Freeze federal salaries and federal hiring.
5. No tax cut extensions for those making over $250,000. Trickle down doesn't work. Ask Zimbabweans.
6. There's at least $300billion in savings per year already identified by Heritage Foundation and similar think tanks in Washington.
7. Sell all vacant federal buildings
8. Cap the federal budget at 15% less than it was before the crisis began.
9. Raise Social Security’s retirement age to 70
10. Raise taxes 5%
That's at least $700billion in savings. Start there or anywhere else. No fiscal plan = no confidence = no corporate investment, no jobs growth, no GDP growth.
The (as you say "greedy") private sector has produced the wealth that provides the comfortable life you and I enjoy. How dare you demonize the hard working men and women that comprise the "private sector"?
Not every American has the ability or the work ethic to get a job paying a "living wage". You don't have a "right" to a job anyway; you have to earn what you want to get.
2.If the marketplace won't supply these jobs, then government has to be the employer of last resort.
Our government doesn't have the money to employ anyone who needs a job. Where have you been?
In any case, the government doesn't exist to provide everyone's needs and wants.
3.There must be a jobs-oriented stimulus package that not only supports America's teachers and public safety workers but also strengthens the U.S. infrastructure, in general. (Bring back the WPA!)
There is such a "package". It's called free enterprise and personal initiative. This is what grew this country to greatness (not government handouts, which have served to bankrupt this nation).
4.We can pay for the new stimulus package by increasing taxes on both the wealthy and financial institutions.
Tax increases are counter-productive, especially in these bad times. Wealthy folks need to do what they have always done, and that is invest in businesses so that they can be productive and employ people.
What do we have now? "Too big to fail" Industries dominated by big business. Economies of scale. High barriers to enter the market. International competition.
That last point is especially important...company's "free enterprise" to outsource labor to the lowest bidder.
The fact of the matter is that free enterprise DID grow the country to greatness, but in place were also protective tariffs to facilitate this, no big business or international competition, and certainly no outsourcing. So whoever has been in charge over the last 30 years tossed your playbook in the trash.
The General Welfare provision of the Constitution is completely at odds with the sort of Capitalist Fundamentalist vision people like you have that seems to guide things. It says that the only right is not to jobs, but to profit and "free enterprise" and to profit... let's not forget profit, anything that restricts that is an assault on liberty. The problem with such an emphasis with jobs as just a spin off and not an end to itself is that government is geared to a tiny minority of capital owners with the vast majority of the population benefiting only at the pleasure of that tiny minority with spin off effects only. The General Welfare provision clearly means that government governs for the general population, not for a tiny elite. It's not enough to say "hey, it will all spin off to benefits for the general population" when there's no obligation that this elite who are being served first do anything of the kind for the general population and that it's the obligation of that population instead to twist itself out of shape to prove themselves worthy of this exalted class to what becomes the privilege of a livelihood. A blatant violation of the General Welfare provision.