Jobs Jobs Jobs
That’s what people want. Jobs. Not repeal of the Affordable Care Act, not deficit reduction, not cutting Social Security. Jobs.
- When asked to select what they believed were the two most important economic problems facing the country right now, 41 percent said “high unemployment” and 33 percent said “outsourcing of jobs,” the latter capturing the deep worry that America and American corporations are not able or willing to create American jobs. Another 18 percent focused on wages not keeping up with the cost of living. Just 25 percent chose “the budget deficit is big and growing” as one of the top two problems.
- Just 17 percent think the priority of the new Congress should be repealing health care. What respondents did say the Congress should prioritize over the next two years is economic recovery and new jobs (46 percent), protecting Social Security and Medicare (34 percent) and “making sure that our children receive an education for these times (27 percent).
- While deficit reduction is very important, voters want to see a growth strategy. When respondents were offered a choice between brave deficit reduction and a jobs plan to reduce the deficit and achieve growth, they rallied to the later, 58 to 35 percent, with 42 percent strongly embracing growth over austerity. On a scale of zero (cool) to 100 (warm), respondents registered support for a plan to invest in new industries and rebuild the country over the next five years (57 warm and 16 cool). They also supported, but not as strongly, a plan to dramatically reduce the deficit over the next five years (52 warm and 20 cool).
- Elected officials have no mandate to cut Social Security—and the voters have no appetite for it: 56 percent of respondents oppose the recommendation of the White House bipartisan deficit commission to raise the retirement age to 69 by 2075.
- On the surface, 56 percent of respondents support a deficit commission goal of $4 trillion in deficit reduction by 2020. But a nearly identical bloc (54 percent) hate the plan itself. When they hear the details of the plan, without any rhetoric, they turn dramatically against it.
- A sizeable majority, 52 to 43 percent, oppose the planned $100 billion dollars in budget cuts House Republicans have proposed for this year that would reduce spending on education, student loans, energy and the environment. Also, by a two-to-one margin, voters disapprove of Republican positions that add to the deficit (such as the repeal of health care reform and making permanent tax cuts for the wealthy).
Tags: deficit, Health Care, Jobs, unemployment
The Goldman report specifically mentions an August Wall Street Journal column by Robert Barro, who argued that the unemployment rate would be as low as 6.8 percent if it weren’t for the “folly of subsidizing unemployment.”
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Ah yes, because states where they minimize how many people receive unemployment, like Florida, are doing so well. Oh wait…Florida has some of the nation’s worst unemployment.
The problem with our economy is a massive collapse of effective demand. That means people don’t have money to buy things, so businesses don’t have strong sales, so businesses don’t hire. One of the few things that has been holding sales up has been unemployment benefits, which are almost instantly turned around into sales for local businesses.
It is not as if America suddenly collectively decided to go on vacation.
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An Alternative to Capitalism (which we need here in the USA)
The following link takes you to an essay titled: “Home of the Brave?” which was published by the Athenaeum Library of Philosophy:
http://evans-experientialism.freewebspace.com/steinsvold.htm
John Steinsvold
Perhaps in time the so-called dark ages will be thought of as including our own.
–Georg C. Lichtenberg
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Its like you read my mind! You seem to know so much about this, like you wrote the book in it or something. I think that you could do with some pics to drive the message home a bit, but other than that, this is great blog. A great read. Ill definitely be back.
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The “unemployment rates have fallen” headlines kill me every time I see them. It’s painful to know that so many simply have run out of unemployment benefits and no longer qualify, thus causing the fall in unemployment rates. These people are still unemployed, but they no longer “count” because there are no jobs out there for them. People are accepting jobs that pay less than the one they lost just to make ends meet. I lost my job in 2009 and was unemployed for 7 months living off my savings and severance. I never filed for unemployment. I took a job paying about 60% of my old salary, and have to take payday installment loans in order to make my budget properly. Then one paying 75% of my old salary. I’m now at 80%. I’m still underemployed and never made the statistics. At least we’re not buying all our shoes at Wal Mart anymore. Pres BO and the dems controlled the house and senate and all they did was ramrod healthcare at a trillion $ cost. I hope the swing the other way continues until after BO is a stupid citizen again.
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