Fresh ideas about career, education, the life well-led, and improving the world.
Saturday, July 21, 2012
What Should Government Do to Create Jobs?
This morning, the CBS-News producer of the show I'll appear on tomorrow emailed me. He asked, "Is it okay if the host asks you, "What should government do to create jobs?"
- end the concept of "wrongful termination" with the exception of being asked to perform jobs that can lead to legitimate physical incapacitation or death (AKA, legalize "at-will hire-and-fire"
- relax environmental permissions
- deregulate markets by abolishing barriers to entry: e.g., allow free entry into taxi industry, hair-cutting, interior design, even law and medicine!
- invest extremely heavily in nuclear power
Man...I'mma set this country up so every dumb mother-lover around is going to have two jobs simultaneously before the age of 10!
I'm very pro-choice, pro-gay marriage, anti-materialism, believe in a modest amount of regulation, believe there's more dishonesty among the Republicans. That said, I certainly am not an across-the-board Democrat: I believe government should be much smaller and that Democrat social programs and other forms of redistribution are ridiculous as is government spending on environmental programs the private sector knows to be boondoggles. So I'm a sort of all-over-the-map, part blue-dog Democrat, part Libertarian, part conservative. In short, I have a hard time voting.
I don't think dorm housing does it. The simple pleasures you like would not be possible in such an arrangement. Instead such things as abuse of drugs would probably be common.
Also, most adults don't want to live in a supervised setting and many would choose the underground economy over such an arrangement.
Basically, very high unemployment equals permanent social unrest and depression from lack of domestic demand.
I think that if masses of people cannot be profitably employed for money we'd see either slavery in some form, third world style squatting, or people expecting their families to support them.
Employers as a whole need to get over their 'we owe you nothing, you owe us everything' attitude and start bringing more to the table. Labor participation is at the lowest it's been since the '82 recession and they still complain that no one meets their 463 point checklist of qualifications and accepts their pushed down offers. When employers start holding up their end of the social contract again, I'll be happy to start voting for deregulation.
We may get what we wish for...unfortunately, in the form of war.
Unrest around the world has been increasing at a rapid pace; and as the economy worsens around the world, people are more inclined to listen to psychopathic dictators promising to make the trains run on time.
In addition, scarcer resources incite people to want to take resources from others at the point of a gun.
It happened before in the 1930s...it could happen again. I sure hope it doesn't.
Big Brother is here but he's not in the White House, the Capitol, or the Supreme Court Building. He's in the board room and the boss's office. Employers are demanding a level of control over employees that's gone well beyond reasonable. If the system were functioning, employees could tell these guys 'no deal' and walk away. This is the free market solution and how it ultimately should be. However, people in this country are too desperate, too greedy, or both to say no, so these guys keep winning out. They know this and can keep adding more conditions (Facebook logins, being on call all the time, etc.). It's not slavery, serfdom, or indentured servitude but it's getting uncomfortably close for my liking.
Legalize "blocked transactions."
ReplyDeleteSo...
- legalize drugs
- legalize prostitution
- legalize gambling
- abolish the minimum wage
- end the concept of "wrongful termination" with the exception of being asked to perform jobs that can lead to legitimate physical incapacitation or death (AKA, legalize "at-will hire-and-fire"
- relax environmental permissions
- deregulate markets by abolishing barriers to entry: e.g., allow free entry into taxi industry, hair-cutting, interior design, even law and medicine!
- invest extremely heavily in nuclear power
Man...I'mma set this country up so every dumb mother-lover around is going to have two jobs simultaneously before the age of 10!
I dont know how you can say all of this, and then say you are a Democrat.
ReplyDeleteI'm very pro-choice, pro-gay marriage, anti-materialism, believe in a modest amount of regulation, believe there's more dishonesty among the Republicans. That said, I certainly am not an across-the-board Democrat: I believe government should be much smaller and that Democrat social programs and other forms of redistribution are ridiculous as is government spending on environmental programs the private sector knows to be boondoggles. So I'm a sort of all-over-the-map, part blue-dog Democrat, part Libertarian, part conservative. In short, I have a hard time voting.
ReplyDeleteI don't think dorm housing does it. The simple pleasures you like would not be possible in such an
ReplyDeletearrangement. Instead such things as abuse of drugs would probably be common.
Also, most adults don't want to live in a supervised setting and many would choose the underground economy over such an arrangement.
Basically, very high unemployment equals permanent social unrest and depression from lack of domestic demand.
I think that if masses of people cannot be profitably employed for money we'd see either slavery in some form, third world style squatting, or people expecting their families to support them.
Employers as a whole need to get over their 'we owe you nothing, you owe us everything' attitude and start bringing more to the table. Labor participation is at the lowest it's been since the '82 recession and they still complain that no one meets their 463 point checklist of qualifications and accepts their pushed down offers. When employers start holding up their end of the social contract again, I'll be happy to start voting for deregulation.
ReplyDeleteWe may get what we wish for...unfortunately, in the form of war.
ReplyDeleteUnrest around the world has been increasing at a rapid pace; and as the economy worsens around the world, people are more inclined to listen to psychopathic dictators promising to make the trains run on time.
In addition, scarcer resources incite people to want to take resources from others at the point of a gun.
It happened before in the 1930s...it could happen again. I sure hope it doesn't.
Big Brother is here but he's not in the White House, the Capitol, or the Supreme Court Building. He's in the board room and the boss's office. Employers are demanding a level of control over employees that's gone well beyond reasonable. If the system were functioning, employees could tell these guys 'no deal' and walk away. This is the free market solution and how it ultimately should be. However, people in this country are too desperate, too greedy, or both to say no, so these guys keep winning out. They know this and can keep adding more conditions (Facebook logins, being on call all the time, etc.). It's not slavery, serfdom, or indentured servitude but it's getting uncomfortably close for my liking.
ReplyDelete