Published CommPro.biz 2014.02.27

The Solution
 

“What do you think is the most important problem facing this country today?” The folks at Gallup ask 1,000+/- scientifically chosen Americans that question the first week of every month. Last week (2014.02.17) they released the answers for this month. Jumping back into the lead it shared with “The Economy” every month from 2008 until last fall, was “Unemployment and Jobs”. So despite the chorus that has been droning “debt/deficit, debt/deficit, debt/deficit” during that same timeframe, the public has been worrying about unemployment, jobs and the economy. The deficit and debt has been at the bottom of their list after other concerns like healthcare and the politicians who are supposed to be doing something about these problems.

Actually the politicians beating the deficit drum are the ones who were in power when it was created. So if the people are concerned with unemployment, jobs and the economy, why do they keep sending the debt creators back to Washington to complain about their creation? The answer is twofold. Firstly, those who benefit most from the policies of debt creation –the ultra-wealthy– pour money into the election campaign coffers of the debt creators. Secondly, gerrymandered districts –immune to democracy– have been created for these servants of the wealthy.

How do we create jobs, reduce unemployment and fix the economy? We don’t claim credentials when it comes to economics, nor are we relying on the host of economists who see the solution we see. We are just reviewing the past. If you start at the beginning of the modern economic model –the industrial revolution and the birth of capitalism– you find the beginning of the pattern of periodic downturns in the economy, mostly caused by one greedy sector or another.

If you examine that series of ups and downs you will find that without exception, when the economy went down, recovery was triggered by the same solution. The government stepped in creating jobs, jumpstarting recovery. There is not a single instance in the United States or any other modern economy where a downturn has been reversed by any other means, not one. The idea that austerity is the path out of an economic downturn is a proven failure. Anyone who reviews history can see that. We see it today in Europe, nations teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. Germany, the strongest nation in the EU, is stagnating. We are the strongest nation in the world. Yet we are creeping; dragged down by the debt creators.

Now is the time to repair our crumbling infrastructure, to invest in education, to fund research, to create the jobs that will pull our economy out of the mud. To do what has been done every time we’ve faced this problem for more than 200 years, jumpstart growth. The people have been worrying about unemployment and jobs for five years. We know how to fix that; it could have been addressed in 2008. Makes you wonder why some of those charged with fixing it have instead focused on the debt/deficit; maybe a distraction?

"Am I wrong?"--"Am I Nuts?"-

-"What do you think?"--"Do you agree?"