Deficit fever has swept through our capital, and President Obama has finally caught it. However, his speech is focusing on the wrong deficit. And that's because, quite sadly, our political culture is obsessed with the wrong deficit. Yes, the American people want to put our government's fiscal house in order. But, more than anything else, the American people want jobs. And it doesn't take an economist to understand that if we create more jobs, our nation's fiscal position will improve.
The jobs deficit in our nation is a crisis. The effective unemployment rate is still over 15 percent. McDonald's announces 50,000 new jobs, but these positions pay near-poverty wages. We will not win the future by flipping Big Macs. One company in China, Foxconn, which produces for Apple and other name brands, created more jobs last year than the entire American manufacturing economy. Manufacturing in America, which is doing better right now than most other sectors of the economy, is still 24 years away from regaining the 5.5 million factory jobs we lost over the last decade, assuming last month's pace of job creation can continue.
Congress and the Administration should be competing for the best jobs plan, right? Not at all. The modest investments of the Recovery Act are winding down. There seems to be no appetite for funding long-term investments in infrastructure, clean energy manufacturing, or basic and applied research that could be commercialized domestically. The tax debate is centered on everything except what type of tax reform can reward domestic production and employment.
We are in a post-recession and post-election haze, and it has clouded our vision about the truly important things. The debate on how to ride out the recession has been over for more than a year now, but the debate about how to rebuild a sustainable, balanced economy has not even begun.
Some smart takes on boosting jobs as a solution to our fiscal problems have popped up in the blogosphere, but they have failed to penetrate the center of the political debate. They should.
The formula is so simple that it seems too good to be true: job creation means more revenue for the Treasury and lower demand for public services. That lowers our budget deficit.
There's a lot that our government can do at no cost to taxpayers to support American job creation: lower the growth-sapping trade deficit, end China's manipulation of its currency, apply "Buy America" policies to more of our procurement, direct tax advantages to domestic production and away from shelters. But I haven't heard a peep from Republican leaders in Congress or the Administration about any of these initiatives, even though they all enjoy support from more than 80 percent of the American people--left, right and center.
Where's the outrage?
Believe it or not, I think it might come from the Republican presidential wannabes, who talk to real people every week. I'm not saying their prescriptions are ideal, or even sane in some cases, but they will at least get the conversation started. There is a reason beyond mere name recognition and the absurd "birther" issue that Donald Trump polls so well: he talks about China and jobs in an honest way that no leader in D.C. does. The conversation has to get started, but there is certainly a better way to finish it.
For now, the budget deficit reigns supreme. The President's speech today is just one more indication of how no one wants to be left out of the fiscal debate. It is a travesty that the wishes of the American people have been left out altogether. When the President ventures to Ohio or other swing states, he is sure to hear a different tune: show me the jobs.
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Here is an article that explains why Foxconn has so many manufacturing jobs and we have so few:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/4kx5s5u
Is this what we want for our future? We cannot compete against these kinds of working conditions, but we shouldn't allow products produced in such inhumane ways into our country.
And how many good, caring people are using devices produced by these workers right this very minute?
http://tinyurl.com/4kx5s5u
the trade deficit is a far more damaging problem for our economic well being. the lost jobs, wealth and technology generation measured by the trade deficit.
by being more self sufficient in producing more of what we consume, importing less and saving more, creates jobs at home. makes us less dependent on foreign borrowing to consume more imported goods, this is how the trade deficit ties into the federal defict. also the lost jobs put further strains on social services, and lost industries and closed plants strain local tax bases
fix the trade problems and watch the federal defict go down
I posted this link about the conditions of Chinese workers above:
http://tinyurl.com/4kx5s5u
the easiest solution is tariffs to offset the externalized and distorting effects of low cost labor and regulation avoidence. make imported goods cost the same as they woul be produced domestically, which worked great for most of the last century pre voodoo economic ideology. Tariffs would also increase govt revenue, offsetting federal deficit, and reducing the tax burden on indiviiduals and business
It gets worse. More Americans work for the government than work in construction, farming, fishing, forestry, manufacturing, mining and utilities combined. We have moved decisively from a nation of makers to a nation of takers. Nearly half of the $2.2 trillion cost of state and local governments is the $1 trillion-a-year tab for pay and benefits of state and local employees. Is it any wonder that so many states and cities cannot pay their bills?
President Obama says we have to retool our economy to "win the future." The only way to do that is to grow the economy that makes things, not the sector that takes things.
I am sure my neighbor the cop would not be too happy that you called him an unproductive member of society
http://neweconomicperspectives.blogspot.com/2011/04/stephen-moores-ode-to-american-workers.html
New Economic Perspectives: Stephen Moore's ode to the American Workers his Policies Harm
http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2011041512/why-arent-honest-bankers-demanding-prosecutions-their-dishonest-rivals
Why Aren't The Honest Bankers Demanding Prosecutions Of Their Dishonest Rivals? | OurFuture.org
"This is the second column in a series responding to Stephen Moore's central assaults on regulation and the prosecution of the elite white-collar criminals who cause our recurrent, intensifying financial crises. Last week's column addressed his claim in a recent Wall Street Journal column that all government employees, including the regulatory cops on the beat, are “takers†destroying America..."
sure hope thkeating never has a natural disaster, flood,earthqauke, hurricane, fire so forth where the services of the national guard are needed
Another symptom: At least 30 million Americans able to work are sitting around in various stages of incipent rebellion. Many are ready to explode within groups led by indispensible demigogues. It is not at all obvious that our government must place these millions to work on meaningful projects that develop knowledge, skill and citizenship. Scott Paul, you got my vote. You treat symptoms.
when in fact it is the qucikest and easiest to aplly method to right trade imbalances
It is also the responsibility of congress as granted by the constitution to regulate trade, and one of the most effective tools in the kit to do this is the tariff. Unfortunately our congress has badly shirked this responsibility