Where do jobs "come from"?

[SoCalDem]

There are the jobs "provided" by mega corporations (which are contracting like a fully dilated pregnant woman these days). These jobs are in tiers
...building/making the actual product
...packaging the product
...selling the product
..."managing" the people doing the above tasks

There are jobs provided by small family businesses (those are usually reserved for family-members only, and are often without much/any real pay)

There are "farm" jobs, which are low pay, hard work and pretty much on-call 24-7. (also usually reserved for family only)

There are "off the books jobs" (usually in landscaping/construction/painting/flooring/tiling, etc, and are negotiated and often the people doing the jobs, take a lot less than they should, to GET the job)

There are government jobs..federal/ state/ county/ municipal.. (these jobs are great to have, but are tied to budget cutting, and can be gone in a heartbeat, or with an administration change)

There are retail/service jobs ( these are very sensitive to "the bottom line", and are often seasonal, and rarely have set-schedules or any benefits to speak of)

There are "professional" jobs that require lots of "pull" and degrees to get, but once IN the job, many involve long hours at desks, pushing piles of papers around, and composing at a computer.

There are "technical" jobs, that also require significant education/degrees to obtain.

Jobs are totally reliant upon someone else being on the "other" end of that job..on the receiving end.

Doctors need patients
Salesmen need customers
Agricultural workers need customers with money to spend on the food they grow
Producers of goods need buyers of goods
Purveyors of services need people who want/need that service
Government jobs even need people on the receiving end of their labors. TSA people must have travelers to search & wand... Mail carriers must have people living in houses with mail boxes...Teachers need students

Our government is faced with a big ole dilemma. Propping up consumerism, back to the 70%-service bubble we have become used to, is no solution, because so many people are already out of the bubble, flat on their backs, in debt, and jobless. If they found a job tomorrow, they would still be down and out for a few years (or more).

Creating "new" businesses out of thin air is not a solution either, because the people who have a job , with insurance benefits cannot afford to "go it alone" and start a business that will most likely fail, and will provide their families with NO benefits. People who have the time, and who are already out of work, have no money to start a business.

I don't see a "solution", because we seem to have forgotten the basics of supply & demand.

Somehow our businesses morphed into behemoth corporations with more layers of complexity and debt than a $50K wedding cake. Everything became all about "the market" and "the street", and nothing is about the actual products and/or customers anymore.

No amount of "stimulus" seems to alleviate the problem. Giving money to the banks only made them more solvent (and they still hid their bad stuff..and still have it). Giving money to repair infrastructure helps some, but it focuses on a small sliver of the economy. Giving money to the people does not even work, since many use(d) it to repay debts for stuff they already consumers (sometimes years ago).

Creating "green jobs" is great for the future, but people are going to be reluctant to put solar panels on a house that's a month shy of foreclosure.

Propping up the auto industry does little, if people are afraid/too broke to buy a new car.

We need a serious "Daddy-lays-it-all-out" heart-to-heart talk about just how much trouble we are in, and how we have to completely change the way we do things.

We still have people alive, who have lived this way, and who know how to do it. We have the capacity to change our economy, but politicians know that their jobs are on the line if they actually vote for changes we need, instead of changes we think we want.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

1. It's A Vicious Circle

I have builder friends who want to do remodeling because new construction has dried up because of the bad economy. However people don't have enough equity in their home to take out to pay for remodeling.

[SheilaT]

2. It's long been said that the majority

of new jobs (which must mean jobs in general) do not come from large companies, but from small and medium sized ones.

[SoCalDem]

3. But those "new" jobs are unlikely to provide "family-supporting" wages

and many (most?) come without health care benefits.''and even those companies/businesses need customers with money to spend.

[Johonny]

9. It's not clear that's true

since most small/medium business people do support themselves and their workers. These jobs did support the US economy for along time. I don't think they fundamentally changed. In the end the question you ask is one that's impossible to answer. Since there is no true formula for how to create a job.

[Statistical]

18. not true

comparing wages between micro cap, small cap, medium cap, and large cap companies there is not that much difference.

Someone who likely would be paid well working for a giant company like say Microsoft or Google would get paid similarly working for a small company.

The truth is virtually all new jobs come from small business. Large businesses tend to grow by eating competitors which normally results in a net loss of jobs. Small businesses although small vastly outnumber large businesses and thus even a small number of net jobs per business adds up to substantial net jobs.

[moondust]

4. .

I'd lay out an "11th hour diatribe" but it's a bitter pill and wouldn't make anybody feel better.

Good topic, though.

[ashling]

5. I think I am going into the wedding cake business

more layers of complexity and debt than a $50K wedding cake.

Hell, I don't even have to be the "Ace of Cakes" ... I'll settle for the "10 of Diamonds of Cakes"

:rofl:

[InkAddict]

12. Oh-oh - sees Betty Crocker/Duncan Hines flying off the shelf.

But, seriously, a new business opened here recently - cupcakes (downsized).

[The2ndWheel]

6. The better question might be

Where do "jobs" come from?

[Curtland1015]

7. "We need a serious "Daddy-lays-it-all-out" heart-to-heart talk"

I vaguely remember Obama trying that once or twice months ago when he first got into office and everybody (well, not us, but everyone else...) get on him for being a downer that was frightening people.

No one wants to hear the truth, and they don't want to have to alter their lifestyles at all to help fix the problems we have. They just want the elected officals to wave magic wands and make all the "bad stuff" go away.

While I don't think our elected officals are doing a great job right now, it is kinda sad how they're screwed no matter what they do.

[Canuckistanian]

8. Jobs come from rich people.

And if those rich people are taxed too much on their personal earnings, they'll take those jobs away.

At least that's what I heard from a man on Fox News one day. And it must be true, because they don't just allow any idiot on TV.

[timeforpeace]

19. No, jobs come from poor people.

[redqueen]

10. "contracting like a fully dilated pregnant woman"

What?

So... it's kind of a start-stop-start-stop thing then?

[Curtland1015]

11. No, that's more like the old Plymouth Reliant I used to have.

Start, stop, start, stop.

[InkAddict]

14. Just wait until Mom discovers she's birthed Rosemary's Baby n/t

[Egalitariat]

13. During a Democratic Administration, jobs are created by the president

During a Republican Administration, jobs are created by businesses who are benefitting from the policies of the current president's Democratic predecessor.

[kentuck]

15. Most jobs are created from a desire for materialism.

When people want things, they tend to be produced. When they are produced, they tend to create jobs.

[RaleighNCDUer]

16. I see two interrelated solutions -

1) Reestablish the consumer society, but without consumer credit. Encourage people to buy all they want, but actually PAY for it when they buy it. Too much of the consumer income has been siphoned off by the credit industry, which provides nothing to the economy but immediacy.

2) Universal single-payer health care provided by the government and paid by taxes. Take the employer out of the loop completely in providing health insurance - it is a burden which makes the employer non-competitive with foreign rivals, which limits the employer's ability to expand his workforce and provide full time work, and gives the employer a lethal weapon to wield against employees in holding down wages which the employees must accept for fear of losing health insurance. If an employer chooses to offer supplemental policies as an enticement to workers - fine.

Those two concepts would completely turn the economy around.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

17. There is no "solution" because the capitalists go where labor is cheaper.

And, they will continue to do so until the American workers are convinced that they have to accept less compensation for their labor or until workers in developing countries wages increase to American levels.

Catch-22.

[HughBeaumont]

21. And somewhere in this equation . . .

. . . the American workers that now make less are expected to buy stuff that now costs more with their reduced wages that haven't been raised in real dollars since 1979, and they're expected to do this every decade to keep this consumer economy a-rollin!

But GOD FORBID you ask the wealthy to make any kind of sacrifice or changes to the way THEY live or do business. OH NOOOOOOOOOOOOES. They're 1000 times smarter, take 1000 times more risk; therefore, they deserve to make 1000 times more money that you :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

[timeforpeace]

20. So, no clue, hmm? How about, The Job Fairy™?

[rschop]

22. NO SHIT SHERLOCK, HOW GOD DAMN DUMB CAN YOU GET!!

From prior post:

Where do jobs "come from"?

Where the hell do you think the jobs come from, the "GOD DAMN TOOTH FAIRY!"

Again to repeat what the President of Sony said so well! "AMERICANS HAVE TO MAKE REAL PRODUCTS WELL"

In a recent news article a 23 year old Chinese student was quoted as saying; "The Americans are stupid. They ship all of their factories to China and then make their financial sector the main focus of their economy",

So even a 23 old student from China knows more about our own economy then our own esteemed economists. So what does this tell you about out esteemed economists? It seems they are just as dumb as fence posts. And it seems that their hubris is only matched by their profound stupidity.

So why did we ship all of our factories to China? Just ask all of our equally esteemed politicians. Maybe they can tell you why you don't have a job today and why you will never have a job in the future? Unless of course you move to China and you are willing to work for 17 cents per hour.

[scarletwoman]

23. Jobs come from making the things that people need and want.

People need clothes -- therefore clothesmaking jobs are created.

People need shoes -- therefore shoemaking jobs are created.

People need food -- therefore food-growing, and food distribution jobs are created.

People need shelter -- therefore construction jobs, and building materials manufacturing jobs are created.

People want beds and couches and chairs and tables -- therefore furniture-making jobs are created.

Etc, etc...

There are millions of people with jobs doing all these things. The problem is, they're mostly doing it in other countries instead of here. The reason being, the capitalists who derive profit from the exploitation of others' labor choose to maximize their profits by exploiting the labor of those who live in countries who pay the cheapest wages.

sw