What is the best way Pres. Obama can create jobs and get the economy going again?

[txlibdem]

Today, our economy is 70% reliant upon consumer spending. The officially admitted unemployment rate is 10% but some say it's closer to 15% to 20% when you count the number of Americans who have given up and those who are working part time but need a full time job.

Back in the 1930s, FDR brought us the WPA, a jobs program under which the government directly hired people (or sometimes through shell companies) to do construction projects (roads, bridges, Hoover Dam, etc.), fix up our national parks, and a whole host of other jobs that needed doing. We as a nation have benefited greatly from the contributions to our society by WPA workers. It was not enough of a stimulus at that time because our economy did not rely on consumer spending. Critics of the program fail to factor that in.

I wondered how a similar program would fare today so I sent a letter to the President:

A message to the president:

Dear Mr. President, please end your fatal attraction to the failed religion of Trickle Down Economics. You have wasted two years trying everything under the sun to get small businesses and big corporations to create jobs, meanwhile they are sitting on $2 Trillion in cash reserves --enough to pay 20 million workers a salary of $50,000 per year when factoring in the other costs of having employees.

Business is NOT going to help you get the economy going. When are you going to get that through your head?!? It has had 2 years to work and it has done nothing.

Bring back the Work Progress Administration and put millions of Americans back to work!

Pay for it by taxing American companies operating overseas, having factories overseas, or having bank accounts overseas. Or figure out some other way to pay for it that doesn't screw the poor, the middle class or the nations retirees.

And if you continue your disastrous record of capitulation and unilateral surrender of Democratic ideals to the Republicans there will be more unrest, more unhappiness, and eventually a 2012 primary challenge!

Get on track and get the WPA going!

I wanted to bring this question to the DU brain trust, please vote for your choice of the best way to create jobs.

[Davis_X_Machina]

1. Any, or all, of those you can get through Congress...

...and the Congress coming in isn't any friendlier to most of them than the one going out.

I notice you left off 'Rule by decree, and expropriate the expropriators' as one of the options.

Property is theft. Peace out.

[Deep13]

2. Stop relying on linear, unsustainable economic models.

In the short term, tax the rich, hire the unemployed.

[txlibdem]

3. Please explain

I don't fully understand your alternative economic model. Please explain it.

[Deep13]

8. Hey, I just work here.

I don't have an alternative. I understand that alternative models exist and that there are those who understand them and can explain them. I only know that a linear model going from resource extraction to production to consumption to disposal is not sustainable.

[notesdev]

4. This poll needs a "fire Tim Geithner"

and perhaps a "recommend to Congress the removal of Ben Bernanke"

[txlibdem]

5. That's the spirit!

You're on the right track but don't stop there. What about Larry Summers and the other bush appointees Pres. Obama hired to be his most trusted advisors and administrators. What say you?

[On the Road]

6. The Only Alternative to Stupid Right-Wing Solutions is the WPA?

OK.

[txlibdem]

7. Did you vote "Other?"

eom

[On the Road]

9. Yes, I Did Vote Other

but given that the choices were not very thoughtful -- either the WPA or various ineffective right-wing proposals -- I did not feel the need to give a thoughtful, well-developed proposal.

[txlibdem]

10. I can't force you, of course, but that was the implied reason for "other"

Thanks for voting anyway :-)

[On the Road]

11. I Realize That,

but the WPA seemed to be the only alternative to tax cuts and supply-side economics you could come up with.

Simply extending unemployment and raising taxes for the upper brackets may be enough. The economy is not in crisis as it was two years ago. Any major programs now should avoid borrowing hundreds of billions of dollars.

One thing I would do would be to propose raising the minimum wage to $10-12 an hour. That would increase tax revenues and also benefit the working class. It would cut into some corporate earnings and reduce the number of unskilled jobs, but overall it should be a positive.

[bossy22]

12. issue with your message

You will need business to get this economy going. the question you need to answer (and the answer will solve the jobs issue i might add) is why business is holding on to 2 trillion worth of reserves? Some might say its greed- but in reality that could be farther from the truth. Reserve money is basically liquid assets (Cash) sitting in bank accounts- not making much interest (in reality due to the god awful interst rates these corporate reserves are actually losing real value). Companies don't like to keep large reserves because as i said above- money in the bank doesnt make your more money- business would prefer to invest that money to make more money. That investment almost always spurs job growth. IMO- the issue is confidence- these corporations are holding onto large reserves and refusing to hire because they are scared- scared that a double dip might happen or that consumer spending isnt strong enough to warrent an expansion. I mean if i was a business owner who owned a business producing a consumer product or service i'd think twice about making a long term investment at this moment. A WPA might work but it would cost the government an enormous amount of money. And your options you mention at getting this revenue may sound good on paper but in reality may be detrimental. Taxing corporatiosn that produce overseas- sounds good but could be very detrimental. I know its the political correct thing to do, to be anti-outsourcing and to punish manufacturers who do- i agree- but outsourcing and overseas factories are not one in the same. I have said this many times on DU- outsourcing is basically producing a product for the american market outside the U.S. by a U.S. based company. I agree thats wrong. But what if a U.S. based company owns a factory in china to produce goods for the chinese market? How can i blame that company for that when it makes sense to open up shop where your customers are going to be? Many times the money made from these products gets funnelled back to american stock holders- and american investments.

[txlibdem]

13. Businesses are worried

I'm going to let the right wing talking point angle slide because I feel magnanimous today...

Businesses might be rightfully worried of a double dip recession and that consumer demand isn't going to shoot up. Let's look into that fear a little more in depth, though, and see if it will be helped or harmed by a correctly-sized WPA jobs program.

Consumer spending accounts for 70% of our economy, our GDP. Would consumers be spending more if they were 1.) Employed, or 2.) Unemployed? My money is on #1.

The Bush tax cuts have now been in place for 10 years and only Faux News is trying to pass the lie that they've created jobs, amd Pres. Obama should have known from the day he took office that tax cuts will NOT create jobs. Not when there are so many offerings overseas and booming economies to take advantage of for sure. The wealth of the top 2% has gone up dramatically over the Bush years while the middle class is sliding backward, costs going up but wages stagnant. So tax cuts are obviously NOT the answer without some regulations, some targeted spending by either businesses or the government.

And I have already mentioned that businesses are NOT hiring, the recent employment figures are even worse than any so far this year. This tells you that businesses are NOT hiring during a time when they are enjoying the largest tax cuts in history and recent news reports say that profits are up dramatically. So that puts the lie to that theory. But maybe the businesses are worried that consumers aren't going to start buying huge quantities of stuff. Well duh! Business isn't hiring people, in fact they keep shipping jobs overseas to take advantage of the tax break given to businesses to close down factories here and move them overseas (yes, incredibly, our Democratic President and fully Democratically controlled congress hasn't stopped that tax break yet!!!). So without the businesses taking the leap who is going to hire the workers so that consumer demand can get going again?

The only option that Pres. Obama has at his disposal is a government financed jobs program, since the current crop of Dems have no spine to shake down the bankers who robbed us, have no spine to threaten or intimidate business into hiring, have no spine to take a hard line position on ANYTHING, actually. Hell, the President almost never says the word "Republican" when talking about their failed policies or their antics in congress. If you are too damn scared to say the frickin' word then what chance is there that you are going to stand up to the Repukes and duke it out with them over Democratic principles?

It sure is going to cost a lot of money for the WPA jobs program? Is it going to cost $850 Billion like the current tax breaks to millionaires? Is it going to cost $700 Billion like the bank bailout? Is it going to cost over $1 Trillion like the wars for oil? Is it going to cost $600 Billion which is the current pentagon budget? If the Pres. would slash defense in half and take all the rest of that money he could make unemployment go down to 0% today by putting that money to work with a WPA jobs program.

The only thing standing in the way of the WPA is backbone, or lack of it from our leaders!

With all those people employed, consumer spending is going to skyrocket and businesses won't be worried about that anymore. When you give a tax cut to millionaires you get back 30 cents on the dollar, as in for every dollar you give to the rich it produces 30 cents worth of economic activity (probably most of that in the yacht sales and luxury condo markets, jewelry and fancy paintings, etc.). But putting people back to work will cause a positive feedback in all the communities where they live, small businesses that are worried and struggling today will suddenly be confident and working full blast to meet demand. WPA solves both problems and won't cost a dime even if the government did all the hiring directly.

With a government partnership with business, structured so that their tax cuts go up the more people they hire, defense cuts are reduced as unemployment goes down, etc., the feds won't have to do all the hard work. Right now the businesses have every incentive to hold back and to continue shipping jobs overseas, or to hold onto their cash and just invest that overseas. The tax incentives need to be realigned to promote hiring people and paying them a good, living wage. Do I believe that the current crop of leaders has the balls to do that, to stand up to big business and make their threats have an ounce of credibility? Nope. That is why I want the government to do all the hiring and get the economy moving again. If American businesses don't want to expand to supply the demand then new businesses will be started by true patriot entrepreneurs to meet the needs of these well paid workers.

[eridani]

19. Actually, you need demand to get the economy going

Business does not create jobs. Demand creates jobs. Business is sitting on trillions because there is no demand.

[elleng]

14. Get money into the hands of the consuming public in any way possible,

including unemployment compensation, maintaining 'low' tax rates for middle class, cut payroll paxes, and 'stimulus' projects like WPA, and construction projects.

[Hawkowl]

15. Break up the banks

Break up the huge banks. The huge banks have a stranglehold on the economy by siphoning off people's savings and using it to speculate in the stock, commodity and derivative markets. If these banks were broken up and forbidden to speculate they would be forced to earn their money the old fashioned way (Before Clinton's reforms) and actually lend money to consumers and small businesses.

Second, tax corporations that outsource plants and equipment. Tax their foreign investment to encourage them to keep their investment domestic.

End the subsidies for offshoring jobs.

Rail, rail, rail! Highspeed, street cars, and metro light rail subsidies.

Pass the public option so people can leave their jobs and start their own businesses. Small businesses would be able to hire more people if you could guarantee health care premiums.

End oil and coal subsidies and give them to solar and wind companies.

Take the free trade agreements and stick them where the sun don't shine. Reinstate tariffs on countries engaging in unfair trade, e.g; China and currency manipulation.

Cut the defense budget by 30-40%. This will be almost impossible, so do what JFK did. Make the defense companies shift their focus to space. That way they stay on the federal tit, and won't use their money and influence to destroy his presidency. Not the best solution but space is better than murdering goat herders and their families.

These are off the top of my head in 5 minutes. Surely Democrats could do even better than this.

[txlibdem]

16. Surely our leaders can do better than us peons

After all, they're the smartest people in the room... :rofl:

I like all your ideas! It makes my head spin to try and figure out the true motivations of our "leaders" in congress and the Administration. It seems as though you and I know more about governing this country than all the lawyers and millionaires sitting in the halls of congress. How is that possible?!?

One thing I'd change about your JFK paragraph, we need to take the money out of the election cycle. All elections should be publicly financed and no outside money allowed. And the campaign season needs to be shortened to 60 days for national elections and 30 days for state and local. Candidates will engage in debates and that is all (no campaign ads), tv and radio stations will be required to run these debates as part of their charter "to serve the public interest" that allows them to use our public airwaves --any other media outlets can run the debates at no cost if they wish as well. No smear campaigns possible in that scenario. Oh, I almost forgot the most important part: any candidate that makes a false statement during the campaign will be fined and jailed for a minimum of 1 year. I'm sick of these crooked politicians telling lie after lie and getting away with it --sometimes even getting elected with the help of outright lies. Anyway, back to JFK, if big money is kept out of the election process then a President is free to do the right thing for the country without having to worry about moneyed interests taking revenge.

[upi402]

17. Obama is a corporatist, he will not do a WPA or NRA.

Upgrading the electrical grid and a WPA for alternative energy tying into it would be rational. It would also harden the energy grid against attack.

But we are not a rational state anymore.

[jmowreader]

18. The best way to do it, long term, is to solve the Cheap Chinese Crap Problem

The catalyst for the whole economic crisis was offshoring.

Yes, I know people are going to come back with "it was mortgage-backed securities" or "it was collateralized debt obligations" or "it was the mortgage mess." Got news for ya, kids: you cannot take a manufacturing nation like this used to be, gut the biggest part of its economy--the manufacturing base--and expect the nation's economy to survive.

Also consider: the true genesis of the mortgage problem is overpriced inventory coupled with depressed income. IOW, the McMansion came into existence just as people were no longer able to afford a house like that.

If, and only if, we can reestablish a manufacturing base in this country, we can survive.

[Democrats_win]

20. Economic reform will free Americans to create a better economy.

So many Americans are just fighting to stay alive as the banksters and usurists attack using the corrupt courts and the corporate-owned sheriff departments. With so many Americans subjected to this rob-from-the-poor-to-pay-the-rich system, is it any wonder that our economy remains anemic?