Jobless versus Job Openings: Wake up call for President Obama! Time to propose an FDR/WPA solution.

[Karmadillo]

It's pretty clear the exalted *****PrivateMarket***** isn't going to provide the number of jobs we need on its own anytime soon.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/07/a_chart_that_screams_extend_un.html



Why such resistance to a WPA solution? What Democratic President wouldn't want to be the author of such a beneficial program in times of such pressing need? And if Obama is, for whatever reason, adamantly opposed, why aren't Congressional Dems pushing a WPA solution on their own? It is simply too cruel for the Obama administration to package the desperate status quo as "recovery summer". While there's plenty of summer, there is nowhere near enough recovery. We were promised hope and change. A WPA solution would deliver.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/07/12-6

The Case for a New WPA
Why many are calling for a modern incarnation of the Depression-era program.
by Kate McCormack

<edit>

Many organizations are calling for a modern incarnation of the WPA both to assist the nation's 6.5 million long-term unemployed and to advance national priorities, from transitioning to clean energy to modernizing infrastructure to supporting the arts. A new WPA could help support:

Jobs
In 1938 the WPA was the largest employer in the nation. For every job it created, two jobs in the private sector were created indirectly. Today, with unemployment seemingly stuck above nine percent and concerns that young workers will never fully recover from slow-starting careers, a new WPA, like its predecessor, could be the answer. The WPA was an important strategy for lowering unemployment and reducing the human suffering of economic recession. Government can hire people that the private sector typically does not: the long-term unemployed, young people without work experience, people from chronically underemployed populations, older workers nearing retirement, and workers with criminal backgrounds. Job experience and training can help these workers move into new industries for the long term.

Green Infrastructure
A new WPA could also help modernize an American infrastructure in desperate need of overhaul. The American Society of Civil Engineers gave the U.S. a grade of "D" in categories ranging from drinking water to transit to hazardous waste management, and estimates that $1.6 trillion in investment is needed over five years to bring dams, bridges, roads, sewers and other public projects up to par.

The first WPA played a huge role in modernizing the United States' 19th century infrastructure. Workers built 650,000 miles of roads, 78,000 bridges, and 125,000 public buildings. The WPA built parks, zoos, public pools, golf courses, and even ski hills, many of which are still in use.

This incarnation of the WPA should focus on creating green jobs to decrease U.S. reliance on fossil fuels. WPA workers could perform overdue energy assessments on public buildings and help boost their energy efficiency; build improved and expanded transit systems; or overhaul sewer systems to stop disastrous overflows and protect fresh water sources.

lots more...

[rpannier]

1. There's an unrec for a WPA style solution

Evan Bayh is a member of DU???

[Lost4words]

6. I suspect the unrec person has no idea what WPA was.

there is a group here that automatically unrec anything less than complimentary to our leader. I dont think they read past the first negative. Dont let them get to you.

[mod mom]

17. or it's a DLC type who likes the thought of cheap labor to employ.

rec'd. I've written to President Obama before regarding this need but I'm afraid this message is being filtered out by those who surround him like his CoS, Rahm.

[PJPhreak]

33. I think its a Freeper Crew...

I've heard rumors of a bunch of 'em that run around and unrec everything,taking a sadistic glee in doing so.

If that is true then these freaks need to climb outta Momma's basement and get a life.

[bjobotts]

45. Agreed. Show up late every evening to unrec everything on the site.

[Lost4words]

2. Sinceable talk like this only gets me depressed. Back to reality.

this was needed day 1.

[Hydra]

41. +1

This should have been there as the first item, but they really thought the economy would self correct back to normal this year.

In what friggin universe was THAT possible?!

[leftstreet]

3. K&R

:applause:

[hulka38]

4. Rec'ed for the optimism

and looking to FDR for the solution.

[bjobotts]

46. As I've posted many times. Solar roofs on all buildings and homes plus

[bjobotts]

47. Plus windmills in every community and neighborhood. Easily paid for by

a 1% tax on all Wall street transactions and a repeal of the Bush and Reagan tax cuts for the very wealthy. We have the answers but look who opposes us...the billionaires, oil and ins. lobby. But what can Obama do to instigate such an effort?

(End the senate filibuster rule or end the senate...stop the tyranny of the minority)

[Hugabear]

5. Gladly K&R

WE are the ones who need the jobs. These are the types of jobs that CANNOT be outsourced.

[Lost4words]

7. without question K & R!

[Kat45]

8. I've been saying that for a long time now.

What's the problem? Why aren't they doing it?

[MannyGoldstein]

9. Obama already gave $Trillions to bankers

Nothing's ever enough for you radical left types. All you want is more, more, more.

:shrug:

[Radical Activist]

13. He also gave trillions to the kind of clean energy projects mentioned in this article.

[Lorien]

23. Trillions? No. 2 billion proposed for solar

while 30 billion ADDITIONAL funds were sent to guard a pipeline in Afghanistan.

[Radical Activist]

25. Trillions didn't bail about banks either.

So we're all exaggerating.

But only counting 2 billion for solar isn't the whole story either. Far more than $30 billion was spent on green jobs.
http://www.greenjobsguide.org/wiki/federal

[girl gone mad]

32. 12 trillion + to the banks.

No exaggeration.

[liberation]

48. LOL well, you know with the right kind of eyes a couple billion bucks looks like trillions

After all there is nothing more "radical" than constantly defending milquetoast pro-status quo sets of policies, which is exactly how El Che would have had it....

[Greyhound]

10. K&R. I saw a poster here call this "busy work", so I closed my browser.

The list of essential maintenance and upgrades this nation needs immediately seems endless.

We absolutely need to spend several trillion dollars asap just to limit the number of disasters that are going on right now. 1/3 of our bridges are unsafe and many more are closed every year because they are going to literally fall down. Roadways, airports, sewage, rail lines, dams, you name it... And that is only what is needed to keep the inadequate systems we still have.

And those assholes are trying to buy their way out of responsibility with a couple hundred million, mostly in pork.
:banghead:

[nashville_brook]

39. yet we have unlimited resources/blood to build a whole new public sector for Afghanistan.

where's that headbang thingy?

[Greyhound]

56. : banghead :

without the spaces.

[inna]

11. Here's how China's ecomomy growing at 12%:

http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewarticle/articleid/4298513

14.9M American men of working age are structurally unemployed. Structural unemployment is joblessness caused not by lack of demand, but by changes in demand patterns or obsolescence of technology, and requiring retraining of workers and large investment in new capital equipment. We need to get real about this - ONLY Government involvement is going to be able to turn this around. Business is scared and sitting on cash and if the US Government isn't willing to invest in America - why should they?

What does it cost to employ 15M people? Let's say we pay them an average of $28,000 (National average) plus generous health care and benefits and call it $35,000 per man. That's $525Bn to full employment in the United States. As it stands now, we are giving 6M of those people unemployment checks anyway, say $100Bn and, of course, if we hire those people for $525Bn they'll pay about $150Bn in taxes so the net difference to the government between NOT helping 15M people get jobs and helping 15M get jobs is $275Bn a year.

I won't get into the fancy math of how $525,000,000,000 paid out as fresh wages flows through our economy, the general rule of thumb is there is a 3x multiplier effect to net GDP so about $1.5Tn or +10% to our GDP for pushing through jobs programs that would cost us a net of $275Bn. Of course if some of those jobs end up creating other jobs along the supply chain, then so much the better and maybe we'll have to spend less or maybe we'll get some real, lasting economic growth. Why isn't our Government doing this??? This is what the Chinese Government does to achieve huge economic growth - THEY INVEST IN INFRASTRUCTURE!

China invested the same $580Bn we should be investing and their economy came roaring back this year. Of course $580Bn in China's $6Tn economy is like the US spending $1.5Tn on infrastructure but let's not go crazy, I would be thrilled if we take 1/2 as much as we spent on TARP ($700Bn) and apply it to REAL stimulus that creates jobs for a change and leaves something of lasting benefit in it's wake like roads, bridges, renewable energy, high-speed rail lines - you know, the kind of things real countries invest in as opposed to the Corporate Kleptocracy that has been sold to the masses as US Capitalism…

[Karmadillo]

20. Wow. Too bad we didn't take that route. Investing in banksters just

doesn't have the same kick.

[Radical Activist]

12. You mean like all the clean energy jobs in the stimulus bill?

It's modernizing our energy infrastructure, rail system, and making buildings more energy efficient. Green jobs and clean energy were the largest areas of spending in the stimulus bill. Those are WPA style projects. The author's failure to mention that is puzzling.
The only problem is that many people are too short-sighed to see that a good clean energy bill is the best chance at fueling our economic recovery.

[rpannier]

15. You are correct of course

But he needs to get out there and get his people out there and remind people of this constantly
They don't do it enough and consequently it gets missed or forgotten

It is the responsibility of the Administration to tout their successes as often as possible for many reasons. 3 of these are
1. The opposition is out obfuscating, okay they're lying
2. The media is so focused on the 'real news' of the day -- the barefoot bandit. That these things are being ignored
3. Someone's gonna take credit when these projects start to come to fruition

[Radical Activist]

21. Obama will be fine.

He'll talk about his accomplishments on the campaign trail. People will support him when they hear about what has been done. He'll probably get re-elected.

What I'm worried about is his ability to pass legislation in Congress and the 2010 election. It would help if left pundits could celebrate progressive victories now and then.

[MannyGoldstein]

16. And how many jobs is that creating?

My guess is that it will put to work fewer than 2% of today's unemployed, but perhaps I'm wrong - what's the right number?

[Radical Activist]

30. We'll know when it stops creating new jobs.

That hasn't happened yet. I'm sure you'll support Obama's call for even more such projects. Right?

[Lorien]

24. Links? Since you already falsely claimed that he had spent "Trillions" on

clean energy projects (absolutely laughable) you're going to need a few verifiable facts on your side.

[Radical Activist]

26. Over here.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=8740638&mesg_id=8746038

[readmoreoften]

28. $100 billion isn't 1 trillion. And whatever the amount, it's clearly not enough.

Half measures are no measures here. We need a large scale WPA style program. And we will have to draw down from the useless wars to accomplish it.

[Radical Activist]

29. I'm sure the people who got those jobs

will appreciate your stance that no progress is good enough.
I'm glad you agree with Obama that it isn't enough since he has been pushing for more.

[liberation]

49. Aaahhhh... argumentum ad black mail

the best!

[Wilms]

14. k&r n/t

[blindpig]

18. It would take a multitude in the street to force their hand.

Bidness likes this unemployment just fine, it depresses wages. Only fear of the masses might motivate them to make that concession. We know who calls the shots.....

And if we get that far, why stop there?

[Karmadillo]

19. Interesting video on where the incredible profits of the last 30 years have gone.

Wouldn't we have been better off if those profits had gone to workers?

http://therealnews.com/t2/component/seyret/?task=videodirectlink&id=6964

[4lbs]

22. The WPA paid essentially barely minimum wage for manual labor.

Back in the 1930s, people employed by the WPA earned just a dollar a day. That's right. One dollar per day. About 12 cents per hour. Normal salaries back in the early 1930s were in the $4 per day range or 50 cents per hour.

The equivalent would be paying just $6 or $8 an hour for construction and road work.

That's about 1/3 the normal rate from a private construction company.

Anyone unemployed willing to work for that rate?

Even at $8 per hour, that amounts to about $16,000 per year for hard physical labor if one works 50 weeks at 40 hours per week, instead of the normal $36,000 to $40,000 that construction usually pays.

A WPA-style jobs program won't be putting you in an office earning $24,000 per year.

[JDPriestly]

54. Recently, I went to a series of meetings of just ordinary people.

To my shock I met quite a few people in their twenties who are out of work. They cannot get jobs. If you can't get a job in your 20s, can't build your resume, can't get experience, it's going to be hard to catch up in your 30s and 40s. If you take a little time out, say in your 30s after working a lot in your teens and 20s, you have a hard enough time getting back into the labor market.

We may be losing a whole generation.

The worst of it is that many of these young people have degrees. Many of them borrowed the money to go to school and are now facing the task of paying back their student loans -- with no jobs and no income and no hope of finding a job or income.

I bet many of them would be happy to work if only for forgiveness of student loans. I don't like that idea because it reminds me a lot of indentured servitude, but what to do? What are the alternatives?

My dad worked the WPA for a while. It was great experience. The generation that fought WWII, the "greatest generation" included a large contingent of young people who learned how to work in the WPA. It was a good program during a terrible time. At least, young people could enjoy the pride and joy of doing something useful. And those who participated learned how to work in a team.

[joe black]

57. I would.

And i've made almost 30.00 bucks an hour at one time. How about another CETA program where the wage is split between the employer and the government. That's how I got my start in a trade. It was training that led to a life long career that allowed me to buy a home and raise a family in middle class comfort. Can't have that though can we.

[philly_bob]

27. Infrastructure needs repair. (nt)

[Bluebear]

31. An idea floated here, oh, 1 1/2 years ago1

[Viva_La_Revolution]

34. The 3 young men living in this house would kill for a WPA job

Other than a few odd jobs here and there, there is no work for them. They're stuck at home, feeling like moochers. :(

[defendandprotect]

35. We need jobs with living wages - and until then to extend unemployment benefits --

[ooglymoogly]

36. Such obvious common sense puts a burden

our government to invent mountains of gobbledygook to cover their looking instead at dumping, unpaid, the IOU's, worth trillions, that have been borrowed by government fiat, from us, our Social Security, our insurance co. and safety net, paid for by us; IOU's owned by us and future retirees; Cutting programs for the poor, to pay for the taxcuts and bailouts and changes in law for the rich that put many of the poor in jail;

And not to forget idiots wars that have further emptied the treasury of what we have put into it and again to benefit the rich. Funny how the rich have gotten from 50 to 5000% richer while the middle and poor have gotten 50-5000+% poorer, and even funnier how that works.

Yup its all too funny to the relatively minuscule number of beneficiaries of such largess, using our tax dollars, and by the crooked dealings of "our" gubment. The hard earned tax dollars of the middle class and poor, the teeming masses, used to provide welfare for the few parasitic richest men in history, made way richer by our tax dollars.

[BlueJac]

37. Obama the "Turd"is blind to all facts

[MyNameGoesHere]

38. My granddad worked WPA job

building state parks in WV. Used to talk about it all the time. Seems like it helped the family quite a bit and gave a little dignity while doing it. Can anyone say New Orleans cleanup?

[muntrv]

40. Pull out of Iraq & Afghanistan, let the bush tax cuts expire to fund

this new WPA.

[DailyGrind51]

42. You are presuming that Pres. Obama is seeking Progressive solutions?

My guess is that he still buys that private sector crap.

[Jakes Progress]

43. Don't do it for the Democrats.

Of course putting America back to work would help Democrats.

But sometimes you should just do something because it is right. Do it so men can regain dignity. Do it so women can stand on their own. Do it so children can eat and go to school and not live in the shadow of despair and depression. Surely some things are more important than some president's or senator's or representative's little sense of power and privilege.

[earcandle]

44. I LOVETHIS IDEA: I want to use my skills and talents to work in a way that makes a difference and

I count. 

And when you work for the government, you get the best.  Best
pay, best training, best benefits, best coaching, best
opportunity to grow.  The Post Office was great to me.  I made
$7 per hour in 1966.  Amazing. 

[liberation]

50. I don't think FDR is anywhere near the radar of Obama's administration.

Reagan however....

[grahamhgreen]

51. This will work, and it's a no brainer, unless you have a hidden neocon agenda.

[JDPriestly]

52. Back in the 1930s, we were not beholden to countries like Saudi Arabia

and China and Brazil for natural resources -- at least not to the extent we are now. I do not think that American interests are driving the decisions and policies of either the Republicans or the Democrats. I think that our dependence on foreign sources for raw materials of all kinds are driving the policies and decisions in both parties.

[slipslidingaway]

53. Or the Works Green Administration ...

Economy - WGA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3sGH7SsnZE


The green philosophy of Dennis Kucinich

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/12/11/kucinich_qa

"You propose, for instance, the Works Green Administration.

The Works Green Administration harks back to the days of Franklin Roosevelt and the Works Progress Administration, where he put millions of people back to work rebuilding America's infrastructure. I too have an infrastructure-rebuilding program which will put millions of people back to work. Picture this: You take every area of involvement in the federal government -- whether it's the Small Business Administration, or the Housing and Urban Development Department, or the Department of Agriculture, or the Department of Labor. Each would incorporate green goals. We'd have billions of dollars loaned to the states at zero interest for green development programs; we'd have programs furthering green housing; agricultural policies would relate to green..."

[avaistheone1]

55. kicked & recommended

after the initial 24 hr window.

:thumbsup:

:kick:

[Yavin4]

58. Do You Want The True Reason Why There's No New WPA?

Because unlike the first WPA, the better WPA jobs would have to be shared with African Americans, Hispanics, and other minority groups, not just White males.


And that's why there's political opposition to it.