First, from Congress, we need to start a WPA-style
infrastructure project. In the quality
of its bridges, highways, and airports, America has dropped, in an
international engineer’s survey, from first to fourteenth. Conservatives should not tolerate our country
falling behind, and liberals should back an effort both necessary and employing
millions. If Congress finds itself
capable of bipartisan cooperation, this should be at the top of its list.
Second, from President Obama, a better understanding of
inequality. The most brutal gap is not
above people earning the minimum wage, it is between them and those with no
work at all. Taking steps sure to
decrease their number through forced anti-market pay increases will not help
Americans become more equal, only less likely to have a job.
Third, longer unemployment benefits. For months on end, 4.1 million Americans have
been out of work, officially, for 27 weeks or longer. Time was that people not finding work after
this much time were not really motivated, or at least were doing the wrong
things, but not anymore. It is cruel and
unreasonable to let the tail of people abusing the system wag the dog of so
many who keep trying, keep playing by the rules, and still cannot legally
support themselves.
Fourth, more food stamps.
We need to make sure our countrymen are eating. Abuse, with ATM-style cards and IDs, is
minimal. As with unemployment
compensation, these are not the times to stop or even inhibit something filling
such a basic need.
Fifth, we as Americans need to take a serious look at
guaranteed income. Would it work? Could it be paid for? What are the alternatives? A few columnists have addressed it – will
more do that this year?
Sixth, we also must examine the possibility of charging for
online resources. Free may not be best. As with guaranteed income, paying for
something new – and possibly large – may be hard to swallow, but it may be the
only way for Americans to benefit from contributions, and their own tracked
personal information, they provide for free as well.
Seventh, shorter work hours.
We have been stuck on 40 per week since the days of the Duesenberg, and
there is no profound reason why that must continue. Less time on the full-time job was a stock
science-fiction prediction as late as the 1980s, and hardly anyone half a
century ago would imagine it hasn’t happened.
I don’t advocate forced limits on anyone, but if the federal government
and a few prominent companies went to, say, 30 or 32, many more would follow. Not only would it allow for vast numbers of
jobs to be created, but it would improve the quality of our lives.
Eighth, employers, it’s time to stop waiting for perfect
people and hire who you need at market rates.
There is no skills shortage, only a company training shortage and a
company pay shortage. If you can’t find
the workers you need, it’s your fault, not theirs. Instead of complaining to the media, pick the
best applicant – many are underrated these days – and fill your business need.
Ninth, we all need to realize the jobs crisis is
permanent. Too many observers danced
around this possibility in 2013, looking for explanations for this so-called
five-year incomplete recovery in such fantasies as “a hidden recession, unspecified
government action or inaction, or something artificially caused by the 1%, when
the answer is right in front of us. Automation,
globalization, and efficiency go only one way, and the baby boomers, with
generally fine health and poor savings, aren’t going to bail us out by retiring
en masse. That is, unless they have to,
from a lack of jobs.
Tenth, civil rights leaders, I call on you to unite with the
rest of us to solve the number-one problem your constituency, whatever it is,
faces – not enough jobs. That was a
pillar of Martin Luther King’s 1963 March on Washington – if that was good
enough for him, it should be good enough for you.
At year’s end, a blog post will look at how we did on these
ten points. Happy New Year, all – but
remember, the clock is running!
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