Simple(ish) Plan for Job Restoration.

Call me egotistical. Call me deluded. Call me naive. But I think I have a three point plan that will help create jobs and across the board prosperity in this country.

1: Make all items manufactured in the U.S. tax deductible. This is a two fold benefit in that it will boost demand for U.S. manufactured goods, thereby increasing the need for U.S. based manufacturing jobs while at the same time putting more money in the pockets of consumers so that money can "trickle-up" to our corporate overlords who will finally be incentivized to create jobs stateside.

NOTE: Points 1 and 2 do involve government spending. These intiatives can eventually be privatized, but only once an acceptably high bar has been set. Furthermore, while point three does account for where the money is to come from, point 1's reduction in tax revenue would necessitate continued taxation of corporate entities to fund point 2. Again these are solutions based on today's world and unlevel playing field. They are not conceived in an ideological vacuum.

2: Boost infrastructure projects with one very important modification: Contractors and workers are paid, not by the hour, but by productivity, with the chance to earn residuals for work that lasts a set timeframe. Example - Road crews are paid by the mile rather than by the hour. If the road lasts past x amount of time without displaying set signs of disrepair or decay, the crew responsible for said work receives a small monthly stipend for each month it remains in good condition. The idea is to incentivize fast high quality work. With time, a quality crew can be making sustenance income off residuals while continuing to work on new projects rather than revisiting or redoing the same perrenial projects time and again.

3: Take 50% of Foreign Aid and Close 75% of Foreign Military Bases, reallocating the funds to the improvement of our schools. This protocol should include massive certification and training initiatives to allow more citizens with real world experience to become involved as teachers, assistants and mentors.

The constitution gives the federal government no power to create jobs unless you interpret the general welfare clause to mean the government can do whatever it wants, which is not what the constitution was meant for.

The only way to create jobs is to let businesses work without interfering in their business, i.e. Gibson guitars.

Big corporations don't want to create jobs though. They want to cut jobs and make their current employees do twice as much. They want to offshore as much as they can.

Offshore manufacturing isn't necessarily cheaper in the long run either. Yeah the labour is cheap but once you take into account the shipping costs back to north America and the failure rate of new products due to cheap manufacturing the cost is the same or slightly higher, the only difference is that the company who sells the product doesn't have to cover these costs 100% themselves anymore.

The only way to wake up the big companies is to infiltrate the system. Anyone working for a big corporation at any level in the company should all stop meeting their efficiency quotas and targets. If we all did thi no one would be fired and the corporations would slow down. Stop buying tons of consumer goods, purchase only as much gas as you need. Stop eating at restaurants. Stop buying expensive name brand crap. Shop cheap all the time. Support local mom and pops as opposed to wall mart.

We can win but only when we collectively stop propping up the system that's also failing us.

Originally posted by metaldemon2000
Stop eating at restaurants.

My wife's job is AT a restaurant! Where's the "restoration" in that?



Cheers,
Strype

reply to post by Strype


The restoration will come when our evil corporate masters know we aren't taking their crap anymore.

We need to start being paid for our sweat rather than a pittance that barely allows us to live. It still astounds me how some people still meet and exceed their efficiency targets even though they are paid nothing and hate their job.

Originally posted by metaldemon2000
purchase only as much gas as you need.

Well, you lost me here. How is it possible to buy "more gas" than I need in my daily use of the car? Do you imply people dump unused portion at the end of the day?

Stop eating at restaurants.

Does this really help the country? It's just a service like so many others. I can't treat my kids to a pizza and a soda pop on the terrace? Puh-leeze, how silly is that.

Shop cheap all the time. Support local mom and pops as opposed to wall mart.

You do realize that mom and pop shops have consistently higher prices, so in fact you produced a refined example of self-contradiction in this paragraph. It's just mind numbing.

May I suggest that you try to save trees and to this end, discontinue all use of toilet paper.

reply to post by buddhasystem


People do all kinds of pointless driving around. Then they fill up the tank again. Lots of people idle like crazy. Use only what you need. I'm tired of watching healthy people drive half a block to the store on a nice day and then drive back home. Then they complain about gas.

Kids did fine for thousands of years without restaurants, take out and McDonald's. They only think they need it now because society makes them think that. We stopped take out in our house. We even walk more. I've saves hundred s monthly and we are all in much better physical shape than we were last year. Plus I no longer hear whining when my kids see the golden arches. Oh and TV is a thing of the past in my house. Your kids will adapt.

And yeah mom and pops are expensive but the money stays in your community. How about I rephrase it then. Support only those business that keep the money in your local community. Big corporations love taking profits from your local chains and then filling their own pockets with it somewhere else or they spend it halfway across the globe where your community sees no net benefit.

Originally posted by metaldemon2000
reply to post by buddhasystem

 

... I'm tired of watching healthy people drive half a block to the store on a nice day and then drive back home. Then they complain about gas.

Driving half a block down the street won't put a dent in overall consumption. So again, I find your logic lacking. I get it that you feel bitter for whatever reason and people around you appear to do terrible things, but things you mentioned aren't all that bad. I just don't see substance.

Kids did fine for thousands of years without restaurants, take out and McDonald's. They only think they need it now because society makes them think that.

We don't frequent restaurants. However, the "thousands of years" argument is pretty moot, since kids also didn't brush their teeth or had health checkups for thousands of years, and guess what, they also didn't have Internet access. If you think that the latter is also non-essential (and it is non-essential) how about you set an example by stopping using it right now? Reduce your carbon footprint, dude.

Big corporations love taking profits from your local chains and then filling their own pockets with it somewhere else or they spend it halfway across the globe where your community sees no net benefit.

Big corporations also create economies of scale that lead to better productivity. "Mom and Pop" are working the shop but it's just inefficient. Why on Earth so we need to support waste of effort and an inferior business model?

Having the Govt. intervene in the tax breaks for American Manufactured products is good but it isn't really addressing the root cause of problem.

What needs to be addressed is the ACTUAL reason why we are losing jobs with American goods.

And reward companies that strive to stem this tide by becoming more competitive and productive and most of all by producing quality products once again.

How do you think that the Japanese AND Germans rebuilt their nations after being devastated in WWII ?

By producing Quality products which sell themselves.

reply to post by metaldemon2000

Big corporations don't want to create jobs though. They want to cut jobs and make their current employees do twice as much. They want to offshore as much as they can.

Most of the population is employed by small businesses that are started by entrepreneurs with private funds and venture capital.

The problem, presently, is the hoard of regulations and tax monstrosity placed on businesses by the government. This policy of regulation has fueled the legitimacy of lobbyist activities - lobbying not just to protect the interests of large businesses, but to impede the progress of competitors. Small businesses can easily out-flank large corporations (geared for mass scale production of a certain class of product - not easily adapted to a 'leap' in technology).

Small businesses often pioneer the new game-changing technologies before being bought out by larger corporations, or becoming large corporations, themselves (to later be out-flanked by another small business pioneering a new technology/solution).

That is the cycle of the free market.

If you want to see economic growth, it's not going to come from the expansion of large corporations. It's going to come from the removal of government from the world of business, as a matter of policy. Small businesses will start up and employ people. There are tons of people out there who will invest in new businesses if the climate were to shift back in the favor of investors.

The job of small businesses is to pioneer and provide last-mile services/production. The job of large business is to produce a design cheaply. A healthy balance of both will have workers being paid for gainful employment in small businesses (and some in large businesses) with all classes having access to the cheaper, necessary goods made possible by the mass-scale production of large businesses/corporations. The smaller businesses advance and expand the scope of technology while your larger businesses make it affordable to all.

It's not a perfect environment where everyone meets with absolute success - companies start and fail, workers are employed and laid off by changes in the market (an expert on vacuum tubes is going to have a bit of a niche job these days by comparison to the 40s and 50s) - but the dynamic nature of the market means that there are always options and opportunities to be had.

Originally posted by nh_ee

How do you think that the Japanese AND Germans rebuilt their nations after being devastated in WWII ?
By producing Quality products which sell themselves.

Cost of education in Japan is significantly less than in the US, and in Germany it's even less than in Japan.
Do you see a correlation?