Our annual promises to ourselves have three requirements
which are both necessary and sufficient.
First, they must be things we can personally control – no fair, for
example, resolving to win the lottery.
Second, they must be beneficial to those doing them, which precludes
such as starting smoking. Third, and
most importantly of all, they must be plans on which the person has no
intention of following through.
In that spirit, what would be suitable proposals from the
major players, and groups of players, in American employment? Here’s what Royal Flush Press suggests.
President Barack Obama:
As long as my country could quickly fill more than 15 million additional
work opportunities, as shown by the American Job Shortage Number (AJSN), I will
push for increases in their quantity, and let their quality take care of
itself.
Republican Presidential Candidates: I will help keep America great by supporting
a massive infrastructure repair and improvement project, which will create
millions of jobs in the process.
Democratic Presidential Candidates: I will fight for ALL United States citizens
to have better opportunities to work and support themselves, even straight
white Anglo men, and not just to improve life for existing employees.
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan: I will coordinate the Republican
representatives to do what is right for overall American prosperity, not just
for people with the top 1% of income or net worth.
Columnist Paul Krugman:
I will use my Nobel Prize-caliber skills as an economist to encourage
better jobs policy, even if it disagrees with liberal orthodoxy.
Columnist Charles Krauthammer: I will make my criticism of Obama less incessant
and move on to other topics, including jobs and the economy, at which I can be
constructively influential.
Janet Yellen and the Federal Reserve: Until the AJSN tells us we are fewer than 15
million jobs short, we will neither raise interest rates again nor threaten to
do so.
New Hampshire and Iowa Republican Voters and Caucus
Participants: We will vote for a
genuine, reasonably experienced candidate who understands that politics
involves deal-making and compromises.
New York Times Editorial Board: We will get educated about cost-of-living
differences around our country before again proposing that all jobs everywhere
must pay at least half-again as much as what countless unemployed and
underemployed Americans in the hinterlands would be delighted to work for.
Employers: We will
stop crying about skills gaps and labor shortages, and train inexperienced
workers, pay market rates for experienced ones, or both.
Me, and everyone else:
As the Moody Blues put it 47 years ago:
Keep as cool as you can. Face
piles and piles of trials with smiles.
It riles them to believe that you perceive the web they weave. And keep on thinking free (emphasis
mine).
Happy New Year, everyone!