I hate to admit it, but I often watch "Morning Joe" on MSNBC in the morning while getting dressed for work. It's hard to listen to that blow hard, Joe Scarborough, and his bobbing bobble-head sidekick, Mika, complain about all things Progressive, but I endure it for the guests that appear on the show, who occasionally offer something worthwhile.
For months, most people sitting around Morning Joe's studio have been critical about the President's "focus" (cue the laugh track) on passing a health care bill, and have harped that what's really needed is JOBS, JOBS, JOBS. "People don't want health care, they say, what they need is a job! " (That's because we are the only nation on earth that ties our jobs and our health care insurance together--but that's for another day.)
Hey Joe, people without health care want health care AND a job, but don't want the two tied together and dependent upon the job continuing. Just asking, but can you work if you are ill?
I'm afraid there's a dirty little secret that no one wants to admit. The President can't waive a magic wand and have jobs come back.
None of the commentators who continuously say "what we need is jobs, jobs, jobs...", tell us where the jobs are coming from or how they will be created.
Oh, the so-called free market capitalists (you know, the ones who detest anything Socialist), want the government to assist with job creation. "Give us more tax cuts." It's the same formula that got us in the current mess. Give tax breaks to corporations to encourage expansion, hiring, etc. And then the corporations move to another state (or overseas) a few years later and take those jobs elsewhere. (And please tell me again how these corporate giveaways aren't "Socialism"? Oh, yea, I forgot, welfare to corporations is good; assistance to individuals is "Socialism".)
I'm afraid the lost jobs aren't coming back. There, someone said it.
We are now reaping the fruits of the seeds planted back when Reagan took office and began dismantling Unions, and it has continued with policies that allow companies to outsource jobs overseas or to merge into "too big to fail" monsters that consolidate their operations and spit out jobs like watermelon seeds.
Let's go job hunting.
Are these jobs going to come back in the construction industry? Not in Florida where we have 450,000 homes in foreclosure that are going to be sold for prices that are cheaper than it costs to build a new one. An inventory this large, with people moving out of Florida faster than they are moving in, doesn't bode well for the construction industry anytime soon.
I heard today that Sam's Club is having large-scale layoffs. They want the fired employees to be hired by an outside firm (likely one that won't pay any benefits). Don't bother applying at Sam's for your jobs, jobs, jobs.
Banks? Nope. They are either collapsing or merging, and in both cases are leaving jobs in their wake.
Government jobs? All State and local governments are laying people off or putting people on furloughs.
Newspapers? Nope. They are shutting down left and right. And when they are gone, we won't need those jobs at the paper mills that made the newsprint, and the diner down the street from the mill will close, and the barber who cuts the hair of the mill workers won't have any customers, etc. We've seen this scenario play out already across Michigan. They won't be alone.
We have become a corporate-controlled society that in search of ever-increasing profits to shareholders send all of our manufacturing jobs overseas so that the corporations could obtain products cheaper and improve their profit margins on sales. What we forgot was that by displacing all those jobs here at home, there won't be a middle class to buy those cheaper goods.
What do we make here any more?
When will we insist that things need to be made here again if we want to survive--even if it costs more. Our local economies are interdependent. We need goods and services to be made here, to pay wages to that worker here, and then have that worker spend his or her money locally.
For years, we have done just the opposite. It has come home to roost. The jobs are gone, and they aren't coming back until we start recognizing these truths.
It's worse. The most lucrative segments of our economy make money from manipulating money. They don't make anything on Wall Street. They just manipulate and speculate. And, in recent years, they have created new financial vehicles to "make money." And they are too big to fail?
When are we in Florida going to decide to become the leaders of the world in manufacturing solar panels? When are we going to get serious about making and installing windmills in Florida? Let's build electric cars and hybrids instead of condo's. Let's recoup the tax breaks from companies who leave when the incentives are received. Let's recognize the value of the middle class.
There is no magic wand. There are no hybernating jobs, jobs, jobs waiting to awake from a recessionary nap. It's time to speak up for creating manufacturing jobs in the USA.
Wait, I just remembered two sectors that are hiring--the military and the defense contractors. Think we need to change our priorities? Make some noise.
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