The debate about the debt ceiling should have been a conversation about how to create jobs. It is time for progressives to remind the government that it has a legal duty to create jobs and must act immediately - if not through Congress, then through the Federal Reserve.
With official unemployment reaching over 9 percent, the unofficial rate in double digits and the unemployment rate for people of color more than double that of whites, it is nerve wracking to hear right-wing political pundits say the government cannot create jobs. Do people really believe this canard? On "Real Time with Bill Maher" a few weeks ago, Chris Hayes of The Nation stated that the government should create and has in the past created jobs, but he was put down by that intellectual giant Ann Coulter who said, "but they (WPA jobs) were only temporary jobs." No one challenged her.
Most of the jobs created under the Works Progress Administration (WPA) - and there were millions of them - lasted for many years, or until those employed found other gainful employment. They provided a high enough income to allow the worker's family to meet basic needs and they created demand for goods in an economy that was suffering, like today's economy, from lack of demand. The WPA program succeeded in sustaining and creating many more jobs in the private sector due to the demand for goods that more people with incomes generated.
5 comments:
Obama has no duty to do nothing. Hes screwed america period.
The key phrase there was, "enough income to allow the worker's family to meet basic needs." Heck, welfare and unemployment allow people's families to exceed their basic needs, so who needs a job? In the 1930's people would have been embarrassed to have received unemployment or welfare. People wanted to work and support their families, now they expect to be taken care of by others (corporations and the rich).
When Obamacare is repealed you will see unemployment fall quickly.
That's how government can create jobs.
Heck, welfare and unemployment allow people's families to exceed their basic needs,
I see you don't know the meager amounts they issue.
Obama is going to pivot to jobs and get on it with a laser like focus. Right after he gets back from vacation in Martha's Vineyard.
After all reading from the teleprompter and hosting Muslims at a dinner party is hard work.
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