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Yes, most of these jobs will be for people who already do those jobs. There may be more openings in these areas, but not enough. There may be some new businesses that pop up, but once these "infastructure" jobs are done, people will be unemployed again, and businesses will close again. The ONLY thing that will help is get more money in the hands of the people. Not a stupid $1500 check, or saving people $20 a month in taxes, but HUGE taxcuts. I'm talking the average person saving $500-$600 a month.
Imagine the economy as really small. For example, 2 houses and a store. The store has 5 employees. The people are being taxed to death, and they have huge debt. so they stop spending as much money at the store. Soon the store has to up its prices, and start laying off its employees. After a while the store goes under because they do not make enough money. I know its a dumb simple way to explain it, but now imagine if the Government said ok, we are setting your interest rate on your house down to 3%, and giving you a big tax cut. We are also going to lay off the stores taxes for a few years and let them get ahead. This saves the 2 houses hundreds and hundreds of dollars a month. Soon the store reopens, hires back all its employees and the owner expands because the 2 houses have tons more money to spend, but they can also save some, and the store is saving hundreds in taxes. This gives the store owner, and the home owners a brighter outlook for the future and everyones happy.
Of course its more complicated, like how will the government function without all that extra tax money, but in the long run with all the extra money, more businesses will open up and the government will eventually get more money from all the new businesses. So you see Timmy....getting more money back in the hands of the people really is the only way out. Forget the damn infastructure crap, and put every bit of money into ways to get money into the peoples hands. Its our damn tax money anyways.
What would you do if you had $500-$600 a month extra? You would save some...and put some back into the economy.
To stimulate the economy, I would give all World War II veterans, and all disabled veterans a $100,000 credit that could only be spent on home remodeling, furniture and appliances for the home, rent while the house is being remodeled, and hybrid vehicles. I don't qualify for this benefit. Those veterans in a long term care facility would only get the $100,000 credit for their care, which in some cases would mean it would only be used to replace other benefits that they are receiving.
To stimulate the economy, I would give all World War II veterans, and all disabled veterans a $100,000 credit that could only be spent on home remodeling, furniture and appliances for the home, rent while the house is being remodeled, and hybrid vehicles. I don't qualify for this benefit. Those veterans in a long term care facility would only get the $100,000 credit for their care, which in some cases would mean it would only be used to replace other benefits that they are receiving.
They might help cushion the fall .... you're advocating for doing nothing at all, thus leading to a quick and deadly fall, and the economic destruction of the USA (which would likely lead to political destruction). Presumably you hope something will rise up out of the ashes.
I'm in favor of at least trying to save things, cushion the fall, stretch it out a bit, give people and businesses time to adapt to new realities. Probably it's not going to work very well, though, if at all.
I agree, doing something to (hopefully) soften the blow, is better than doing nothing. But this pre supposes that when we find ourselves in extremis, none of our old friends like russians or "terrorists", or some other unknown catastrophe natural or otherwise comes along to kick us while we're down.
OTOH, a good old fashioned world war might be just the ticket to recovery....it worked the first time.
Location: where you sip the tea of the breasts of the spinsters of Utica
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But this pre supposes that when we find ourselves in extremis, none of our old friends like russians or "terrorists", or some other unknown catastrophe natural or otherwise comes along to kick us while we're down.
He could be honest. Just say : "We're in a mess. Both parties and Wall Street have screwed you and there's almost nothing I can do to turn things around. Even the things I want to do won't help and will almost certainly make things alot worse. I know I promised you hope and change, but so has every other President before me for at least the last 50 years. So you'll be poorer, but wiser. Still, the american people are tough and resilient and very resourceful. I'm sure you can survive me like you did the last president and may even find a way to fix things yourselves without government interference. Good luck and God Bless."
"We're in a mess. Both parties and Wall Street have screwed you and there's almost nothing I can do to turn things around. Even the things I want to do won't help and will almost certainly make things alot worse. I know I promised you hope and change, but so has every other President before me for at least the last 50 years. So you'll be poorer, but wiser. Still, the american people are tough and resilient and very resourceful. I'm sure you can survive me like you did the last president and may even find a way to fix things yourselves without government interference. Good luck and God Bless."
Reads like the perfect farewell address, as he and congress board the plane, with GW, on their way to Paraguay......
My husband was in commercial construction. There were a couple big jobs in the works, then the October stock mess, and the clients were waiting for election results before going forward. The day after the election, they pulled out. My husband was laid off. Captialism doesn't like socialism, so I think the best thing Obama could do for this country is send a strong message showing he's not pulling the country in that direction. But he is, so he won't.
This is what I fear - Obama is planning a new trillion dollar stimulus package. Where will these funds go to:
1.) Earmarks - Unchecked democrats will load these bills with their very own funding programs. Expect lots of pork. Obama will sign it because it will keep his party in power.
2.) Government jobs - Obama indicated that his stimulus package or plans will create 3 million new jobs. 80% in the private economy and 20% government jobs. Well OK if you beleive those figures than this will create 600,000 new government jobs. What the hell? Obama forgot the cardinal rule of government - a government can not create self-sustaining jobs. What in the world are we going to do with 600,000 new government beaurecrats? OK some are going to fix roads, so what happens when the road projects are done? Government workers aren't easily laid off. Increased the size of government is the wrong direction.
OK so Obama is in as of Tuesday. A "Change" is coming to the whitehouse. And while most of use know that a president and his/her administration really can't do that much to "fix" the economy as a whole. I think we can agree that a president can put onto place some programs/incentives to help the economy get moving in the right direction. Now it also seem to me that a lot of people put importance on the first 100 days in office for a president to get things done.
Soooooo. I would like to ask the good people of CD there opinion on what Obama needs to do in the first 100 days of his administration to steer the country's economy in the right direction?
Be an agent of real change.
Cut government spending by 10% across the board.
Cut tax rates by 10%, across the board (35% rate becomes 31.5% rate).
That would be a good start. Of course, it's completely unreasonable to think that he would do something like this. The ideas of government responsibility are conservative and therefore evil.
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