Hire People To Do Stuff

[phantom power]

Like he's said before, our fearless leaders only think it's acceptable to write checks directly to banksters. The rest of us get twice-indirected "bank-shot" policies. The govt could just directly hire people to do real, useful work that's been languishing. But that would be Evil Socialism, or something.
:eyes:

When I look around my hilariously flawed urban hellhole, I see infinite things that could use some work, both public infrastructure and dealing with a lot of deteriorated housing stock. That's even before we get to sexy ideas like weatherization. The idea that we might have "structural unemployment" because there are a bunch of laid off construction workers is absurd. Those people have skills which can be put to good use on obvious productive activities. Someone just needs to write them a check and tell them what to do. The possibilities are, as I said, infinite.

http://www.eschatonblog.com/2010/09/hire-people-to-do-stuff.html

[OneGrassRoot]

1. Absolutely!!!!

It's driving me crazy how there is NEW CONSTRUCTION (which usually ends up sitting there) while so many buildings sit empty or in disrepair. It makes no sense at all. I wish there were a moratorium on all land clearing and we had to be creative to make use of existing structures.

There are several places (Cleveland, for one) where they're turning old malls into a huge greenhouse and farmers market.

Weatherizing and retrofitting existing buildings seems as though that would be a HUGE industry right now. So frustrating....


This is a good magazine, and a good article.

http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/a-resilient-community/10-ways-to-solve-the-jobs-problem?utm_source=wkly20100903&utm_medium=yesemail&utm_content=subseq&utm_campaign=titleKortenF

[Vincardog]

2. Why not go to where there is the GREATEST Unemployment (yes Reservation I am looking at you) and

HIRE the unemployed to do something. Like build a BIG solar collector and the transmission lines to cary the power produced to market.
Pay for it by redirecting subsidies from COAL OIL and GAS,

[stray cat]

3. We need the write the check part - how many can you hire?

its easy to tell others to create jobs - why not create them ourselves for others? (I assume for most of us its not that easy)

[phantom power]

5. I'm glad you asked that...

There's a saying: The govt is The Spender Of Last Resort. Which is what we need right now. Because the rest of us are in a downward spiral. It's impossible or very risky for your average private citizen to start a new business (although no doubt some will, they always do), and existing businesses are in no position to hire, because people either have no money, or are afraid to spend it.

That's why the OP was about the govt Hiring People To Do Stuff. Break the cycle.

[asdjrocky]

4. What a concept!

The subject line alone is worth the k&r.

[gophates]

6. And raise the living shit out of taxes on the rich and then hire more people

And then raise them some more and hire more people.

[Steely_Dan]

7. Exactly!

I am completely baffled why this kind of effort has not been made (in any real serious way).

Through the leadership of JFK (and others), we were inspired to a singular focus, that of space and landing on the moon. Our effort was the envy of the rest of the world. Why can't we have that same kind of leadership in PUTTING PEOPLE TO WORK while repairing our infrastructure?

You can come up with all the excuses you want why it CAN'T be done. I'm sure that many criticized the lofty idea of landing on the moon...but we know what happened.

It is a matter of LEADERSHIP.

For me...this is an absolute NO-BRAINER!

[jillan]

8. I chuckle to myself because the last 2 people I hired were

1. Mohammed. He fixed my air conditioning. He had a very long beard, a cover over his head & was without a doubt the nicest guy I ever met.
Reasonable too. I refer him to people who need their AC fixed, and he will be coming back to do more maintenance.

2. Manuel. He fixed my lawn-mower. He could hardly speak any English. I was ready to throw that lawnmower out, but he patiently took it apart piece by piece and amazingly got the thing running again. I hired him to mow my lawn, but he saw the lawnmower sitting there & decided to fix it. Manuel will be doing more projects for me.

So take that you hateful teabaggers! Not only am I hiring people, I am hiring the very people that you despise. I did NOT hire these people because of their ethnicity - it just turned out that way. We all live in the same community and that's what a community is all about....helping each other.