It’s about time someone got serious. It obviously isn’t going to be anyone inside the Beltway.
The politicians consider their careers and their juvenile ideologies more important than the well-being of the nation and its people. Why are we not blanketing this country with recall petitions. Why are we not exhibiting a similar, reciprocal disdain for their jobs and their well-being?
Have they finally emasculated the American people? Have they accomplished what al-Qaeda failed to do?
Lets break this down into three parts.
Who is destroying jobs?
How do you create a job in the economy? By putting money into play in the economy. How do you destroy jobs? By taking money out of the economy.
So, what are our genius leaders doing? They are cutting the money that the governments put into the economy. They may end up having to eliminate some jobs.
To ensure that, if there are any jobs created in the future, they will not put much money into the economy, they are eliminating the unions.
For some reason those teachers, firemen, policemen and other government employees don’t spend as much money when they lose their jobs. That means that those places where they used to spend money can’t afford to maintain their full staffs. The business may even fail. Who woulda guessed?
The idiots are screaming for smaller government. They are claiming that the government has grown uncontrollably under Obama. The truth? The number of federal employees is less now than under his predecessor. Am I confused about what smaller means?
Some might claim that smaller simply means spending less than previously. Well, salaries are a significant share of expenditures. This is the second of three years that Social Security is frozen. The broken economy’s only positive is that our interest payments on the debt are smaller. Maybe they could scream at a slightly attenuated decibel level.
There wouldn’t be too much of a problem in this hour of need if we had not lived on a credit card during more normal times. Instead of paying our troops’ way in various foreign wars, we elected carny hustlers who promised us we wouldn’t have to pay for anything.
Had we behaved responsibly back in those days, we would have plenty of credit to draw on to juice the economy now. The stimulus was less than half what it should have been and only about 40% was used effectively.
An estimate expects the loss of a million more jobs if the debt ceiling is not raised. My own guess would be far higher. Also, it would mean an increase in interest rates. That would be the same as a major tax increase but the money would be going to the banks, rather than to help the government pay its bills.
Who is refusing to make jobs?
Have you tried to get a loan lately? A car loan? Okay. A loan to start a small business? You’re kidding. A loan to expand a business? No way.
The banks have nearly $2 trillion dollars available. They borrow money from the Fed to purchase T-bills. Those T-bills don’t pay much interest but they’re doing enough volume to help create record profits. By the way, those investment banks want the debt ceiling raised so they can continue their “investments.”
The non-banking corporate sector is sitting on even more funds. They are using some of it to buy back their own stock. Some is also being used to acquire other companies at fire-sale prices. These mergers and acquisitions usually result in significant job losses.
While both the banks and major corporations are flush, by ensuring the general economy stagnates, they can use that as pressure to encourage further deregulation.
Who can create jobs?
There are two parties that can create jobs and help us recover from this mess. The first is the government. They have the ability to both create and borrow money. Most of that creation is through the auspices of the Fed. That needs to be changed. The Fed needs to be eliminated or so transformed as to be unrecognizable.
The newest estimate is that we need an investment of at least $3.1 trillion in infrastructure. Actually, that’s just in highway infrastructure. Why should we spend our money that way? Because it’s not our money. Our kids and grandkids will have to pay for it. Since they have to pay for it, let’s spend their money on something that they will be able to use – while we get some jobs now.
Depending on the government to get us out of this mess is necessary to get us started; a stimulus, if you will. There is another source of jobs. It is far and away the largest source of all.
What is this mysterious economic sector? Is it the big corporations? Absolutely not. Is it the wealthiest two percent of the population? Wait while I stop laughing. Is it small business? Far less than most people believe and far less than we need. So, who? It’s the middle class.
Our economy is known by the professionals as a consumer economy. Why? Because at least two-thirds of our entire economy is based on consumption. The more we consume, the greater the number of jobs required.
Politicians of both parties have either contributed to the decline of the unions or stood by while it happened. I have never belonged to a union but one must be blind or stupid not to see their economic importance and the role they played in creating the middle class. As the unions have declined, the middle class has declined. First, it lost the race with inflation, reducing its purchasing power. Recently, there has been a marked decline in the number of people composing the middle class.
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