Rebuild America…or Nothing?
“Be patient” on jobs they tell us. Just a little more time and we’ll all be going back to work. Right!
The June numbers don’t reflect anything like that. Recently I was speaking to a colleague who had just written a piece in which he referenced the return of jobs and I just had to know what he was seeing that I couldn’t.
“Steve,” I asked, (I call him Steve because that’s his name) “where are these jobs being created? Doing what? For whom?”
His answer was a deflection. He implied that my reporting was negative by saying, “I chose to report the positive things that are going on.”
So from his perspective, the creation of 18,000 low wage private sector jobs as bed-pan porters is positive. But it’s really a step backward. It says more about an aging population needing more long term care than it does about jobs.
We need to create 150,000 jobs every month just to accommodate the new entries into the workforce. There are currently 14 million defined as unemployed because they are still receiving unemployment benefits. Experts estimate that there are as many as 15 million more who have maxed out their benefits, don’t qualify, or are working but not to their potential.
But before we can make progress in reducing the number of unemployed, we have to stop going in reverse. In order to maintain the status quo we were negative 132,000 jobs in June.
I fear a tipping point. Could there come a time when the number of people not working and spending will lead to additional mass lay-offs?
Jobs doing what?
If you’ve noted a lack of specificity regarding what industries or what companies will be creating these jobs you have observed well my student.
The reason is a simple one; no one knows.
And that is a problem. Jobs don’t just appear. They must be created. But there isn’t anything to do. Someone has to make something, or move something, or design something, or create something. But almost every industry is reigning in and government is laying-off. What jobs?
The people we have elected come from such elite backgrounds that they cannot fathom that jobs don’t just magically appear because enough time has passed.
No amount of time will ever erase the scars of the last five years and we are nowhere near the end of this.
There are four reasons that the private sector will not lead us out of our unemployment crisis no matter how many tax breaks we throw at them.
1. Lack of business
High unemployment reduces demand and consumption. Unless something extraordinary occurs it will be a very long time before the impact of that loss of spending
2. Lack of capital
The too big to fail banks we bailed out received that windfall based on the argument that they were needed to make capital available for job creation. But these institutions aren’t lending. They know it’s going to get worse. The money is all squirreled away in off-shore accounts in the Caymans and unless we claw it back it, ain’t comin’ back.
3. Lack of confidence in the future
Many small businesses, the real engines of commerce, were swamped by the backwash of a global economic tsunami. They are probably through being employers.
The private sector is unable to create these jobs in residential and commercial development. The funding isn’t available and no end user exists. Ghost towns are already quite common.
4. Only the little people pay taxes
Remember that in our system of taxation, profitable companies are practically exempt from taxes already.
Those who still have jobs haven’t had a real wage increase in three decades which means that they alone cannot spend us out of this.
According to the bureau of labor statistics, BLS, the industry with the greatest gap between workers and available jobs is construction.
Manufacturing and construction drive an economy. But we don’t make much and we aren’t building anything.
Ironically, at the same time the construction industry sits idle, another bridge collapses, a levee fails, a nuclear plant melts down, or a pipe line explodes.
You probably don’t see it, but America is falling apart.
According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, 26% of U.S. bridges are in urgent need of repairs. But it isn’t just bridges. During good times we deferred maintenance on most of our infrastructure and now we are in danger of dams collapsing, water systems failing, sewer systems leaking, pipelines bursting, levees collapsing and our parks and public buildings chained off and boarded up because we cannot afford to maintain them..
When you add up all of the hidden dangers waiting to take the lives and limbs of innocent Americans it is apparent that this is a much bigger crisis than terrorism.
The Civil Engineers estimate it would take $2.2 trillion over five years to fix everything. That is less than half of our military budget over the same period.
Maybe for five years we could be fifty percent less menacing abroad while we rebuild America.
Think of all the component parts that would have to be manufactured. Everything from bridge supports to electronics would be required. Require that every piece be manufactured in the United States.
In order to manufacture and construct stuff you need raw materials. Loggers and miners go back to work. Jobs would be created in transportation because you have to get both the raw material and the completed parts to their respective sites.
Wholesale trade would boom and consumers would go back to spending. Every sector would grow jobs overnight.
And when we were done, we would have something to show for our investment. We would have built an infrastructure that would be the foundation that would position us to compete in the future.
But the very idea of doing anything to actually create jobs to stimulate more tax revenue hasn’t occurred to anyone in Washington.
Instead, the plan is to reduce essential services to the elderly, the weak and the sick and cap the debt ceiling. That is totally the wrong thing to do. Now is the time to spend like there is no tomorrow or there won’t be any jobs being created by any sector.
I know that going further into debt to create jobs is a hail may pass but we are either all in or all out. It’s fourth down, the clock is running out, we are behind by four points; we have to go ninety-nine and a half yards. Congress wants to take a knee and protect the ball. But me, hell, it’s my money and I want to go for it.
The only way the existing $15 trillion dollars is ever going to be paid down is by unemployed and under employed tax payers going back to work.
We are Americans by God and I am sick and tired of people maligning our willingness to work hard. The American workforce is the most productive on the planet and we can work our way out of this if we have jobs to do. And there is much to be done.
If Congress refuses to raise taxes on the wealthy or compel large companies to pay their fair share, and there isn’t enough tax revenue from workers to pay for even the most basic services without borrowing, and the debt ceiling isn’t raised, Government won’t be able to provide any services at all.
Other than a massive job creation program to rebuild America, I do not see any way out. Do you understand what I am saying? The recession isn’t over and it never was. It was another illusion cooked up by Wall Street. GDP appeared to be up because Wall Street was still doing phony deals with phony accounting and converting it to obscene but completely bogus bonuses.
If anyone has a scenario for how and when we climb out of this, other than rebuilding our infrastructure, tell me.
Over the course of my lifetime, we’ve had the Cold War, a war in Korea, the War on Poverty, a war on drugs, (unless big pharma makes them), a war in Southeast Asia, Operation Urgent Fury (Grenada) (We won that one), Operation Just Cause, (Just Cause We Said So, Manuel Norriega. Panama), Operations Desert Storm and Desert Shield, (Persian Gulf) Somalia, Bosnia, Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan), and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Turns out that the Iraqi people are so happy about it they keep trying to blow us up. Some people just can’t handle freedom, eh?
So what’s one more War?
I propose we declare a “War on America’s Decline.” And, promote it as “A war we can win!”
Take half the defense budget and devote it to making America great again. Bring our troops home and stay out of other people’s business for the next five years while America gets healthy.
Sure, it’s 99 and a half yards but we can do this. We have to try.
We need to get the crowd behind us. “Spend baby, spend! Spend baby, spend! Go team.
Take a look at this chart and note how many industries would be hiring to fight the war.
So if not this, what? And if not now, when?
George W. Mantor
The Real Estate Professor
Founder, American Foreclosure Resistance Movement
http://www.realtown.com/gwmantor/blog
http://www.gwmantor.hersid.com/
“First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win.” — Mahatma Gandhi
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I am the plaintiff suing Wachovia for lying, cheating, and stealing from me, everything is with MERS, “ASSIGNMENTS OF SUBSTITUTE TRUSTEES’ etc. (call me Rita 757-427-0075)
I have 2 fraud/predatory loans from them, Oct. 24, 2005 World Savings Bank / Wachovia and Nov. 21, 2006 Peoples Choice Home Loan / Specialized Loan Servicing L.L.C. / Wachovia / Wells Fargo. In the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Norfolk Division. RITA CHECHE Plaintiff, v. WITTSTAT TITLE & ESCROW COMPANY, LLC, WACHOVIA BANK NATION ASSOCIATION AND SPECIALIZED LOAN SERVICING, LLC, Defendants. TRIAL DATE: OCT. 18, 2011.
NO ONE IS GETTING TREATED FAIRLY, AND I KNOW, WITH YOUR HELP, WE CAN CHANGE THIS. Or, anyone can help me, please give them my information, Rita Cheche, 757-427-0075. I have an email, rcheche1@cox.net but I am getting hundreds of emails of people in mortgage trouble, needing help, SO PLEASE CALL ME DIRECTLY. I need to get my story & evidence in the public eye! And be in the public eye to make it harder for the court system to continue to violate my rights. I’m not great on the computer, not having the right tools for the job! BUT I AM THE FAXING QUEEN! If you would like to see proof of any docs.
I have evidence of every entity & actors’ violations of the law and my rights, example of just one of hundreds of my original documents:
VICE PRESIDENT OF WACHOVIA, JUDY WILLS, FORGED AN IMPORTANT DOCUMENT FROM MY FRAUD MORTGAGE CLOSING, SHE SIGNED MY NAME INCORRECTLY, AND DATED IT 3 YEARS AFTER THE CLOSING DATE, PLUS IT’S DATED 6 MONTHS INTO THE FUTURE (closing 11/21/05, date of package to O.T.S. 03/25/08, date on document 09/23/08). V.P. of Wachovia sent her version of my closing package TO THE OFFICE OF THE THRIFT SUPERVISION, Dept. of Treasury, answering my complaint to the Attorney General of TX, Greg Abbott. I have contacted approx. 15 agencies, having the correspondences, including the secret service and the F.B.I. and getting NOTHING BUT SCREWED.
PLEASE COME TO Virginia Beach, VA to document my plight, before they silence me. My case is a Precedence Setting Case, and will help hundreds of thousands, with your help!
They have stolen over 2.3 million in assets alone. Losing my commercial floor contracting business, I started in 1986, installing floors and wallpaper. Forced to liquidate and/or lost my 9 unit apartment building I provided to the Section 8 Program, a duplex on Chesapeake Bay, I bought to help a lifetime friend who is a quadriplegic, a single family rental home, my son’s education, and my retirement.
My attorney (working for Wachovia) is continuing to bend me over, holding me for WACHOVIA! I have searched for the last 6 yrs. for representation, hiring mine 2 years ago, and in that time I’ve had about 15 mins. Face to face, the first & only appt. She said, for a cost of thousands, up front, she would do everything I asked, get my 2.3 million back, my home, my livelihood, what I would have made with my business, real estate properties, assets, investments, $100k, 25 yr. equity credit line from my rental, they illegally closed, & my excellent credit (they ruined my credit within 48 hours of 1st fraud closing, Oct. 24, 2005 dropping approx. 200 points to 513). Plus, I wanted several million dollars for ruining my family & my life! I wanted all of them to pay until it crushed them, legally doing to them what they illegally did and are continuing to do to me!
I was retiring, when they ripped off my world. I have done nothing but fight back, every waking moment since Oct. 24, 2005. I will fight till I win what is rightfully mine, and then, with the money I win, I will help homeowners get their worlds back! My attorney pulled out the 3-day Cancellation Notice I signed, faxed, mailed & confirmed received, saying “we can start with this”, and then we can file motions and such, after looking over only a couple of pages of my presentation, I set up at 1st & only appt.
I had 2 hrs. to wait for her, an empty conference room, & 6 files boxes of documents to show her. She said she would be in touch to go over everything else, after I deposited the money into her account.
I personally, with my money & labor had taken an old 1300 sf. farm house built in 1890’s having a “Purchase Money Mortgage” of $235K, 06/30/04 no additional loans, my boyfriend built with my money & help, I alone paid for everything, building a 4,000 sf. 2-story Custom home appraised 03/06, for $796,500.00, the bank, with 2 fraud mortgages stole every cent of equity, & a year after my court case, I put against them they fraudulent foreclosure, everything is with MERS, “ASSIGNMENTS OF SUBSTITUTE TRUSTEES’ etc.
but there are no attorneys who specialize in mortgage fraud (not even the ones that advertise, like my attorney). Up until a few months ago, they acted like I was a “crazy lady”, who was trying to get something for nothing from the “Great Gods”, I mean, the banks, brokers, title companies, insurance cos., credit bureaus. I’ve corresponded with at least a hundred. Locally, in Virginia, owned and operated by Wachovia / Wells Fargo Bank, they want to bankrupt you or do a bogus modification, not go up against the “Almighty Bank, WACHOVIA”, and the out-of-state attorneys, Demet, etc. that have succeeded against the banks for homeowner’s tell me they “are licensed in 34 states but not licensed in VA”. Virginia is a “Commonwealth” run by the CBN, and Wachovia/Wells Fargo, also, a NON-JUDICIAL STATE, this bunch of “Good ol’ Boys” stick together & change the “rules” to sue themselves, just like our government.
If you know a lawyer or advocate or anyone who can help, before my lawyer and the court shut down all my options,
PLEASE CALL ME, Rita Cheche (757) 427-0075.
We are all at the crossroads of their plan. It goes back over 100 years. What is happening is what has been designed to happen. What we watch on T V is a dog and pony show for you and me. But people believe it. The media tells the masses how and what to believe.Talking about all that infrastructure that needs fixed and replaced. Were we not paying taxes through all the past decades for the upkeep. I wonder where that tax money was siphoned off to? As I see it there is only one solution. The American people must get rid of the federal reserve and the I.r.s. That is the only way we can stop the debt. The federal reserve and the banking cartels create debt. That is how they make money. The phony debt that they create can never be paid. Greece signs on to austerity then looks at the big picture and knows the debt will never and can never be repaid. now the next country and then the next one and very soon it is the U.S. The banking cartels can never be satisfied. There is no end to the debt. Just more created. We must cut off the head of the snakes. The federal reserve and the I.r.s. The elitists do not want jobs for us they want to totally wipe out the middle class in America.
The good news is they will not win. America is waking up. Not as fast as I would like but people all across this Great nation are waking up. I truly believe that the power structure that wants to destroy the middle class in this country and create a one world order will be destroyed by an entity they created. The Internet. It is the wild card that could not be planned for in their 100 year plan.
Thank you G.W. For the great article and please keep up the great work that you do.
Dave Fahrny
All they have to do is make the millionaires and billionaires to also pay for Social Security, and end the bush tax cuts plus just change the law on Part D that the government can negotiate the cost of drugs just like Wall Mart and Walgreens are bale to do. Problem solved
http://youtu.be/DnrGGJ69BbQ
They keep pushing down our throats about the housing industry and how that would fix the economy. One of the collapses of the economy is a subject that they don’t talk about. How many consumers did they cut and/ or eliminate credit card lines to? They single handedly took spending ability out of consumers hands, which in turn caused businesses to slow down which led to layoffs. They killed the middle class.
I’m sorry, but we have to learn that credit doesn’t expand spending capacity; it sucks the life out of it. With 40% of corporate profits in the US going to the “Financial Services” industry, we are paying a huge amount of our income on unproductive fees and interest.
Yes, consumers need to spend, but they need to spend cash. “Pay Now, Buy Later” will keep more money out of the grubby hands of banks and sharks and give us more, not less, bang for the buck.
And while we’re at it, it’s time to eliminate the US Government’s reliance on debt-based fiat currency. All of our money is created as debt to the member banks of the Federal Reserve. More debt, more money for the banks, less money for everyone else.
Nearly 100 years of debt is too long. End the Fed!