It’s Still the Economy, Stupid

[Little Star]

Andrew Hetherington for Newsweek

Fourteen million Americans remain out of work, a waste of our greatest resource. The 42nd president has more than a dozen ideas on how to attack the jobs crisis.

14 WAYS TO PUT AMERICA BACK TO WORK
Next week in Chicago, the Clinton Global Initiative will focus on America for the first time, inviting business and political leaders to make specific commitments in support of the former president’s jobs blueprint, which he details below.

http://www.newsweek.com/2011/06/19/it-s-still-the-economy-stupid.html


Good Article!

[somone]

1. Recommended

[JDPriestly]

2. Clinton has some great ideas.

I think he is overly optimistic about enforcing our trade agreements. They need to be renegotiated to protect American wages. We rely on American dollars, pay American taxes and like our American system.

The key to maintaining our standard of living is adequate pay for working people. If we pay Chinese wages in this country, we will end up living like the Chinese -- and that is not good. I don't think Americans would put up with that for very long. Neither the Chinese nor the American economy would benefit from it. And we are very much on our way down toward a Chinese living standard.

We need to insist that those with whom we trade pay their workers just as well and provide them with benefits just as good as those we want American workers to have.

In addition, we need to have alternative energy agreements as part of every trade agreement. The kinds of energy that will be used to produce products we import/export should be set forth in a flexible way in these agreements.

Clinton points out that China set up factories in Nevada to produce certain heavy equipment for alternative energy production in Texas because in spite of the higher costs of labor, the transportation costs to Texas were lower. In Nevada, China could save enough on transportation to make Nevada production cost-efficient.

Clearly, if we renegotiated our trade agreements to even out other additional costs of producing products in our country, especially wage differences, then we would bring jobs back to America.

We Americans still have the advantage of our strong work ethic. I've lived in other countries, and I believe that American workers bring more integrity and honesty, more dedication and more willingness to work hard, long hours than just about anybody in any country in which I have been. The two-hour lunch is not a tradition on the American shop floor. Nor is shutting down at 5:00 p.m. in the afternoon. We need to keep our employment numbers high so as to encourage the work ethic and can-do attitude that made us a great country.

Clinton criticizes the tax cuts of the GWB administration. I agree with him.

I still support a value-added tax that is weighted to avoid a regressive impact. That is how Europeans pay for their social benefits and maintain jobs.

Clinton has the idea that utilities and the government should retrofit housing and other buildings to save energy. I would add that similar programs should be developed to install alternative energy equipment for individual houses and commercial buildings.

Problem is that most homeowners or homebuyers do not have the income and cannot get the additional credit needed to install the equipment. And many of us, especially those of us who are retire, would not be able to pay back loans to make these changes. Clinton's suggestion on this is good.

Clinton certainly does not have all the answers, but all in all it is a great article to read from beginning to end.

[Warpy]

3. He had me until he got to "reduce corporate taxes."

They're already at rock bottom and only affect the net, not the gross or anything they're putting back into the company in terms of new personnel or machinery or plants.

Something tells me he doesn't realize they're not on the gross, only on the net.

[GeorgeGist]

4. It's way beyond that now ...

It's the stupidity, Stupid.