ARE WE EVER GOING TO GET SERIOUS ABOUT NEW JOBS?
BY STAS MARGARONIS, RBTUS
The news that the U.S. economy added only 88,000 jobs in March was a sharp drop from previous months and raises questions about rosy economic predictions that ignore the crisis in employment and living standards.
The worsening jobs situations is likely to get even worse as federal budget cuts kick in to re-enforce policies made famous by Herbert Hoover after 1929.
Hoover argued that spending cuts and balanced budgets was what Americans needed to combat the Great Depression.
Instead, Hoover’s policies made a bad situation worse.
In 2013, a good example of our run- down economy is the state of American infrastructure.
The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) recently issued its report on the state of America’s transportation, transmission, waste water treatment, schools and other infrastructure investments: ASCE reports that the United States scores slightly above a failing grade at D+
Too often we hear people say that the Hoover Dam or the Golden Gate Bridge could not be built today because of budget constraints and environmental concerns. Even though it projects generating 600,000 jobs, California’s High Speed Rail project still faces enormous opposition and zero support from Washington.
Rebuild the United States argues that Washington must abandon its neo-Hoover policies of cutbacks that undermine investments in infrastructure and jobs, but nevertheless seems to have bi-partisan support on Capitol Hill.
RBTUS argues that we need targeted investments that can create jobs in energy, transportation and education.
Today, United States lacks enough old style ‘can do’ leaders that built a national rail system, built a Liberty ship fleet that helped win WWII, built a national highway system and sent men to the Moon.
We need to find those can doers and find them soon.