A simple fix for unemployment.

Increased tariffs on imported goods. Is that really that bad? I am sick and tired of hearing about unemployment in the U.S. I would love to hear any better ideas on how to fix this problem. (please don't say "kick out illegals, they are only part of the problem")

reply to post by ventian

We tax china 3% import tax they charge us 25%

Not too long ago a resource or profit was to be made. Workers moved near the area or factory and made money. These families needed supplies that were provided by other people in the community. The bigger the company the more wokers, residents, shops etc. It was a system the fed itself.

Now its is gone. There is nothing, no jobs, factories have all closed down and relocated to China. The only jobs left are service jobs and over the counter jobs. These arent jobs. The system died.

It worked once before.


The big cities are doomed.

reply to post by ventian


Dear ventian,

Work Progress Administration, it worked before and our infrastructure could use some help. Peace. The second thing would be to teach people to be responsible again and teach them more advanced skills.

reply to post by jlafleur02


Is this accurate??? WHY?

i have a fix.

when a child is born, the govt puts away $1000000 for them. in a bank account at 6-10%

for the first 18 years, the govt collect the interest to use for its own purposes.
at 18, the child recieves a benefit of $60000 - $100000 a year. for life.

they can choose to work, or not. they can collect it as a stipend or roll it over and over in an account of thier own.

the $1000000 still belongs to the state. the interest belongs to the person its set for.

its an expensive program, but when you think about how much is wasted in stimulus packages and bail outs and such, this solution could easily rebuild a world with the people back in charge of thier own lives.

All my conservative friends bemoan this idea by saying it would kill our economy by pushing work outside and prevent countries from doing business with us..

I personally disagree, I think it would be a great thing.. even if only increasing it a little bit.

Originally posted by ventian
Increased tariffs on imported goods. Is that really that bad? I am sick and tired of hearing about unemployment in the U.S. I would love to hear any better ideas on how to fix this problem. (please don't say "kick out illegals, they are only part of the problem")

That is not a fix, or a simple fix, for unemployment.

A large country is essentially unable to produce and grow 100% of everything it needs, from raw materials to goods and foodstuffs. This is why trade is needed and why it is so very important, and why many import/export taxes are generally low--to encourage trade, not to mention the global commerce web to which the world is tied.

Raising import taxes would probably force America to produce more things it imports due to unwillingness to export to the US, but i doubt it would "fix" unemployment, it would create a lot of problems, at least to start. Just think of everything involved in the manufacture of one item, and the countless items we consume. We would have to drastically change our way of life, which we are loath to do.

Originally posted by AQuestion
reply to post by ventian

 

Dear ventian,

Work Progress Administration, it worked before and our infrastructure could use some help. Peace. The second thing would be to teach people to be responsible again and teach them more advanced skills.

The WPA was good, but attributing unemployment to irresponsibility and less advanced skills is erroneous. There are PLENTY of skilled tradesmen and people with advanced skills and education that cannot find work. Unless being responsible means having true skill dexterity, which is ideal but unfeasible on a large scale.

ETA:

Originally posted by miniatus
All my conservative friends bemoan this idea by saying it would kill our economy by pushing work outside and prevent countries from doing business with us..

Totally agree with that.

Look no further then NAFTA - it was designed to kill any remnants of manufacturing left in this country & it worked....

reply to post by Liquesence


Not saying trade is bad. But in the town I live in, China (among others) has completely demolished us. Something along the lines of "all corporations must make 40% of items in U.S." would help us greatly. Sorry for the misunderstanding. And any further info you can give me to help my views is greatly appreciated.

The solution to the question that the op has asked, is as follows:

Review all laws on the books, from the local city level up to the federal level, and see what is hampering businesses. Listen to the small business owner and what their concerns are. Then proceed to either rewrite or remove the bad laws, that are in short preventing businesses from either starting or getting started. That would have a dramatic effect on the unemployment, if all of the sudden 10 or more businesses were to open up, and those that are small were able to expand, thus hiring and starting to put people back to work. As long as there are laws that constrict and restrict businesses, and regulations that pretty much can hamper a business from starting, there will be an unemployment problem. Also laws to encourage businesses like partnerships would also be a good thing, cause if they fail, then it would fall to the partners to pay off the debt and not the general public.

This was tried in Mexico and the result was that Mexican's were paying more for lower quality items. This is because competition was eliminated. The result in this instance was that people began smuggling goods, such as appliances from the U.S. to Mexico. Additionally, innovation was stifled due to a lack of incentive to create better products.

Industry in the U.S. has fallen greatly. While tariffs might work in the short term to allow U.S. industry to get on it's feet, in the long term I don't think it would solve the problem entirely.

I imagine if huge corporations were not so prevalent, and instead small businesses took their place, we would see an increase in the following: number of domestic jobs, quality of products, innovation, and consumer satisfaction. Of course this is a very unlikely scenario at this point.

For anyone who has seriously studied this problem; you gotta wonder if there isn't some sinister conspiracy going on here, because it appears the government WANTS all the jobs to go overseas. All the unfriendly regulations; mandatory fees, mandatory minimum wage, unemployment insurance etc.

I have run more than one small business here in the US and it's not easy. In all cases, by the time we paid taxes and mandatory fees like workers comp insurance, it was MORE THAN HALF of our income as a business. And that doesn't even count what comes out of the employees' paycheck, like more taxes, SS Fica and medicare, etc.

I've actually calculated a few cases where the government was getting 75¢ or more out of every dollar by the time the employee had spent their money, with the federal, state and local taxes, road tax, gas tax, property taxes, etc.

None of these fees need to be paid; none of the regulations; OSHA inspections need to be worried about if you simply move out of the country. Couple that with the cheap labor in other countries... seriously WHAT THE HELL do you expect them to do?

Yes, I've read the stories of companies like GE not paying any taxes... I don't know if that's true or not. If it is, I'm sure it's just because they had a whole team of lawyers finding and exploiting every tax loophole. Our tax system is seriously screwed.

Originally posted by ventian
Increased tariffs on imported goods. Is that really that bad? I am sick and tired of hearing about unemployment in the U.S. I would love to hear any better ideas on how to fix this problem. (please don't say "kick out illegals, they are only part of the problem")

a drastic population decrease would leave plenty of job opportunities ...... jus sayin

None of these ideas will work until we use scrap the federal reserve system and go to sound money.

The biggest problem starts at the top in the White House. We need someone with business experience or who has more of his cabinet looking out for the interests of businesses. Right now we don't have that. Obstacles are getting thrown at businesses that want to expand but the political machine in Washington has been fooling some of the people into thinking we need all that to be green. Guess what? If there were no humans, the planet would be an environmentalist dream come true. All green.

reply to post by ZeroUnlmtd


Just over 300 million people in the U.S. What are you sayin?

Originally posted by ventian
reply to post by ZeroUnlmtd

 

Just over 300 million people in the U.S. What are you sayin?

i was referring to the 7 BILLION people world wide, an event that would drastically depopulate that number to the millions is more preferrable.

Originally posted by ventian
...only part of the problem")

Another part of the problem is that everyone is looking for a single fix, when in fact the problem has many parts. Fortunately, most of those can be traced directly to Washington. But, it is ultimately the responsibility of the voters to resolve that.

What everyone is addressing are simply the symptoms of the disease and the relief of those symptoms, while the disease continues to consume.

reply to post by okamitengu


I like your thinking. The thing about jobs is that people easily forget that we've reached the point that even in an ideal society there will never be enough work for everyone. Too many people and too many industries have achieved efficiency that allows fewer people to work it.