Jobs, jobs, JOBS! Apparently, buoyed by their success in the 2010 midterm elections and undaunted by the reality that they have taken exactly zero measures to remedy the situation since then, the Tea/GOP is again prepared to make 2012 political hay out of the abysmal jobs situation in the U. S. today. The pundits all say that a 9% unemployment rate during 2012 will be the death knell to the Progressive cause and the Obama reelection campaign. Unemployment is at around 9% right now. Imagine that.
Since Wall Street is now booming and the Fortune 500 guys have never been more flush with cash, you might wonder where the jobs have gone and why they are not returning along with the fortunes of Goldman Sachs, BofA, and AIG (that changed their name to AIU, but that sounded too much like IOU, so then changed it again to Chartis).
Oh God, is Brandeis going to bore us to tears again, with yet another unendingly long diatribe in a dreary series of unendingly long diatribes on this and related subjects?
No, I am not. Yes, I have researched and written over 22 (okay, 33 actually) posts in this area and will list them at the bottom, but I’m going to keep this one simple, so that you may have a handy, short answer when some moron tells you that Obama killed the jobs and that the only way to bring them back is to elect more Tea/GOP charlatans.
There are two main reasons why the jobs numbers suck in the U.S. right now, and President Obama is not to blame. The big business folks (who are bank-rolling the Tea/GOP) are to blame, and I’ll tell you why:
- American companies have shipped jobs overseas. Why? So megabiz can make more money for their wealthy stockholders, that’s why. Opening a plant, firm, or customer service center in a foreign country does not carry the burden of:
- Taxes
- Following Child labor laws
- Insuring safe working conditions
- Paying workers a decent wage
- Providing job security for workers
- Providing pensions for workers
- Providing health insurance for workers
- Instead of creating U.S. jobs, big business is either hoarding their cash or using it to acquire other businesses.. Profits are through the roof, yet they claim that they are too “insecure” to create jobs. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce says that they are waiting for four things to happen before they will allow their members to create new jobs:
- The government lifts recent regulations on banks/insurance companies that were enacted to prevent the Ponzi scheme-type activities (actually worse, but I promised to keep this short) that almost caused another Great Depression.
- The government lifts recent environmental protection rules that were enacted to help prevent another BP Oil catastrophe.
- The government dismantles the New Affordable Health Care legislation, and replaces it with the old health insurance industry system that you came to know and love all those decades, if you lived through it.
- The government lowers taxes on corporations, but they still get to keep the same loopholes.
Maybe the Tea/GOP is correct in the sense that the Obama Administration has worked to protect the middle class and the working poor from the ravages of the heretofore unfettered, Machiavellian business quest for hegemony. But anyone who actually believes that returning to the former status quo will create jobs has been on LSD since the Clinton Administration. Again, in the interest of brevity, I will not elaborate.
That’s it. I’m done. For those of you who may have the stomach for further reading, I will list below, the other stuff that I have written on this and related subjects, which stem from the finest data that I shamelessly lifted from actual journalists.
J. Brandeis Sperandeo
Just Can’t Watch The “Debate” Tonight, 6/13/11
John Hickenlooper v. Rick Scott: Not Even Close, 6/2/11
ConocoPhillips CEO Latest To Flirt With Extortion, 5/17/11
Highlights From Rolling Stone, 5/17/11
Questions Every American Should Be Asking, 5/17/11
ConocoPhillips CEO Latest To Flirt With Extortion, 5/17/11
Questions Every American Should Be Asking, 5/17/11
ConocoPhillips CEO Latest To Flirt With Extortion, 5/13/11
Questions Every American Should Be Asking, 5/13/11
U. S. Violates Human Rights of Citizens, 5/5/11
Welfare Queen Exxon Mobil Profits Up 69%, 4/29/11
llegal Immigrants 1,000,000 - Immigration-Bigots Zero, 4/23/11
My Own Skewed View, 4/21/11
Lies, Damned Lies & Opinions, 4/15/11
You Might Be A Hypocrite, If…, 4/13/11
In Defense of Christianity, 4/7/11
A Matter of Perspective, 4/6/11
Can’t Be a Progressive Anymore, 4/5/11
Faux Emergencies In America, 3/11/11
State Workers "Share In The Sacrifice" Every Day., 2/28/11
Google The Koch Brothers...Just Once!, 2/22/11
If We Did This, We’d Be Fired., 1/21/11
House Oversight Committee Refuses to Oversee The House, 1/17/11
Does The Health Care Bill Really Kill Jobs?, 1/12/11
The Job-Killing What, 1/12/11
John Boehner Cancels Legislative Business, 1/10/11
Fear Sells, 1/9/11
What To Do About The Lying Charlatans?, 1/7/11
More Fun Facts About Health Care in The U.S., 1/6/11
Repeal and Replace This!, 1/5/11
My Other Brother Darrell, 1/4/11
Stock Market Rebound, 1/1/11
If We Were Any Dumber..., 12/31/10
Hi, Brandeis~
ReplyDeleteI seriously feel torn about my job situation. I have been going to school to try and keep up with technology and trends for tech support and help desk work, and now I get a call that I could go back to manufacturing and inspect and solder circuit boards at a small shop in Loveland. I haven't soldered in 10 years now, but used to be really good at inspection and even repair that I became an instructor for a while. 2 steps forward 1 step back? A job is a job, and I could still continue classes, but it just amazes me the way the job market twists and turns. I guess I just keep rolling with it.
~ Tina Heckert
You were absolutely correct to retool for employment in the 21st Century and, if it were me, I would continue with training, but take the manufacturing job. You might want to reserch the company, to see how they are preparing to meet/create demand for their line, as that will give you a better idea of your prospects for job security.If they are about to get swallowed by a larger corporation with foreign manufaturing, you may be in for an adventure overseas! And, as you said, a job is a job. Good luck, young lady.
ReplyDeleteThat's research.
ReplyDelete