This post originally appeared at Campaign for America's Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture as part of the Making It In America project. I am a Fellow with CAF.
9.8%! It's still all about jobs. It's still an emergency. And the DC elite still don't get it -- or don't care. They give us a "deficit commission" not a jobs commission. They've got it nice while the rest of us have it not-so-nice. Maybe we should move the Congress out of DC so they can see for themselves what is happening to America.
If you visit DC (and don't go to the "wrong" areas) you see nice buildings, nice stores, nice houses, nice hotels, nice trains, nice cars and lots and lots of nice and very expensive restaurants. You see lots of nice nicely-dressed people walking in a hurry to their nice jobs. Lots of nice jobs. Nice, very expensive houses. Nice cars. Nice life. Nice fantasy.
But if you leave DC you see something very, very different. Congress clearly doesn't see what the rest of us see. If they did, how could they possibly do the things they are doing? There is an absolute emergency going on in the country and Congress refuses to even see it. With 9.8% of us jobless -- that is the official rate, not counting the people who have given up or are "under"employed or took pay cuts or whatever -- Congress is debating tax cuts for the rich and cutting back on programs for the rest of us.
Congress actually did act on jobs last week: with unemployment near 10% they killed unemployment benefits for people out of work more than 26 weeks!
What You See Outside Of DC
This fall I spent some time driving around Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. I was covering some of the events on the Keep It Made In America Tour. I am from Silicon Valley, and it's still pretty nice right here, so the extent and breadth of the decline of our cities and towns was somewhat of a surprise to me. Of course I know what is going on, but when you actually come from somewhere that is still pretty nice and see it firsthand -- and everywhere -- the abrupt transition makes its point.
Here is what you see in town after town. As you approach the town the first thing you encounter is the vulture circle that surrounds it. This is the circle of Wall Street-owned chains emulating the Wal-Mart model of sucking cash out of the area, and sending it to the wealthy elites who own ... almost everything now. Nice stores near highway exits. National chains, all the same...
Next is the circle of home equity extraction, the newer houses with the big first and second Wall Street mortgages. These houses mostly look OK -- except the foreclosures with the brown lawns and grass growing in the cracks in the driveway. This area has the car dealers and strip malls that used to sell the nice cars or nice goods that feasted on those "take money out of your house" refinancings or second mortgages. Now they have nail and hair salons or are just "for lease."
Then you get to the areas of older houses, more of them boarded up than you want to see, boarded up stores on a few of the corners of the larger streets. Lots of the still-occupied houses have bars on the windows.
Then you get to the old, crumbling downtown where there are many empty storefronts, some boarded, a few government buildings here and there.
And somewhere is "the old plant." One or more closed-up, fenced-off, rusting old factories or mills with broken windows, maybe part of it falling down, where the people used to work, the jobs moved to Mexico or China.
Much of the country is like this now. So many of the older small towns, crumbling, the money sucked out by the Wall Street elite. The factories sold off, closed. The people can't make a living, the towns can't make a living, the country can't make a living, the Wall Street elite making a killing.
As I said, I am from Silicon Valley, and it's still pretty nice here, but you can see it starting here, too. One of every four or five office or light-industrial buildings has an "Available" sign. The region has the same number of manufacturing jobs as it had when the "tech revolution" began -- the rest moved to China. Even exclusive Palo Alto has empty storefronts on the main drag. It is even happening here. It will get worse.
But it is not happening yet in the parts of New York and DC where the well-to-do elite spend their time. So they don't see or feel or care what is happening to the country. And these plutocrats control all of the levers of power, making it impossible for the rest of us to participate in the system to fix the situation. Which means that people are starting to talk about moving outside of the system. Tea Party, for example. Militias, for example. Nonvoting, for example.
Deficit Commission Instead of Jobs Commission?
The priorities of the plutocratic DC elite do not reflect America's problems. DC gives us a deficit commission instead of a jobs commission. Their deficit commission proposes to cut the lifeline of retirement. There is nothing about investing in our crumbling infrastructure or education or the new green industries that move us away from the oil/coal economy that is draining us and threatening our climate and coastlines. There is nothing about an economic/industrial policy to restore our competitiveness in the world economy.
Perhaps moving the Congress would help, so they can see the gap that has formed between the DC elite and the rest of us. I suggest Lorain, Ohio. Then after a month, Wheeling, West Virginia. Month after that, Canton, Ohio. Next, Erie, Pennsylvania. Then move it permanently to Flint, Michigan.
And, of course, the chart that no one in DC is able to understand:
Sign up here for the CAF daily summary.
Follow Dave Johnson on Twitter: www.twitter.com/dcjohnson
As long as we allow our "dark overlords" to pit us against each other, we will continue to be to preoccupied with our own petty squabbles!
As long as we continue to have such short attention spans, those in power will continue to dupe us over and over in the same basic ways.
As long as we allow corporate America to dictate to us what the latest "trends" are, we'll waste time and talent to make sure we GET those products, we will continue to send our hard-earned dollars to those corporations.
If "we the people" were to stage a one-week boycott of any retail buying, but those big corporations would get the message loud and clear. That message would scare the hell out of the big boardrooms. Just think of it. One week. Are you telling me that not purchasing unnecessary items for one week, one lousy week, would cause such disruption in your life? For you, it would be a minor inconvenience. But for the big corporations who DEPEND on YOU for their income, it would be an EXTREMELY FRIGHTENING to see how quickly their numbers fall off the cliff when their victims decide to ORGANIZE and fight back.
We have such absolute and astounding power when we act as a group!
Yet the government has had deficit spending while unemployment was low.
of available housing to rent at a fraction of what they're paying to live in Washington. With all the money they'd save on rent, they can buy their own health care.
Let's get Michael Moore to head up the welcoming committee.
I'll vote for the next California Governor to run on secession. America is over.
Over the last 5 years my net income taxes (Fed, State, Local, SS and Medicare) averaged $58,000 a year!!!! That is $58k a year the government will not be getting from me alone, starting this year, because I was laid off. Add up all the taxes nolonger paid into this country, due to unemployment. No one seems to factor that in to what unemployment is costing this country.
Now the average person is going to be paying a lot longer than was necessary, and the people who should have failed were saved.
When the Government picks winners in the line of "too big to fail", we all pay for those decisions. Then of course there are those people who defend the very people who did this to us and complain that bailouts aren't continued. I think the technical term is a neurosis.
For example, the unemployed could be helped from two different angles. One angle may be to provide more unemployment benefits. Another angle may be to stop the benefits so they are more motivated to strike out on their own.
Both views are legitimate perspectives and help the unemployed. Of course depending upon your view point, you may not think one of them is valid. But that's your view point.
Not Scot...typing error
Scott Noren DDS
Ithaca, NY
We need to motivate our population with leaning the information age and being able to create jobs within that area.
So what to do with the unemployed? Easy, they need to be re-educated or become a service industry burger flipper. Their choice to the career that they get.
My representative visits my small city at least four times per year, and my senators each come at least twice. They are not driven in a closed vehicle and they speak to plenty of average voters. They know quite well the state of our local economy.
Johnson also seems to indicate "congress" magically appeared having been conjured up by the fiscal elite to benefit themselves. Not a single member would be in Washington if they did not receive 50% + 1 vote. Our congress represents a majority of voter's wishes.
If you believe most who voted Republican in November are voting against their own interests, perhaps you should consider expanding the numbers of registered voters who actually make it to the polls. The US has a dreadful record when it comes to the actual number of registered voters who bother to do so.
- "Johnson"
The problem that most people have had is that they didn't let companies fail like they should have done. To most people it is unacceptable to allow companies to be bailed out and not "The People". However, I believe that most people would have preferred failure for the companies.
Putin raised tariffs on imported automobiles to protect his domestic plants. Hate to have to say it, but economically, we would be doing better with a Putin than your average Republican.