Friday, September 09, 2011

'Toontime: Pass the Yob!

[Ned Beeler, Washington Examiner]
What plutocrats do not understand is that they have social responsibilities in addition to just making money. There is no 'invisible hand'; just their hands stuffing record amounts of cash into their companies' coffers. With the union movement nearly destroyed, and government bought out, asking them to create more jobs is like herding cats, and feral ones at that. Absent a willingness in the private sector to provide jobs, the federal government must turn to more direct means than fiscal policy which some economists do not believe works as an effective job stimulator any more because essentially the economy is already over-saturated with debt. Because consumers have been hit with real estate price collapse and unemployment, they are avoiding new debt like the plague.  Which in turn weakens an economy that relies on consumer spending [charts courtesy Council on Foreign Relations]:
[note: dotted lines represent best and worst cases]
All of this means it may be time to get serious about creating jobs as FDR did during the First Great Depression. US Person proposes a new WPA of conservation projects, infrastructure replacement and teaching, along with free retraining and placement in green, high-tech industries for those who can qualify. Where do we get the money for all this? Consider these statistics: the US has 5% of the world's population; the US economy accounts for 24% of world GDP; US military spending is 42% of the world total! That's out of line.