Snake_Plissken
1) Yes, start taxing incoming foreign made products with higher Tariffs, make the Tariffs even higher for products made overseas by US companies and imported, buy Made in the USA
2) Yes, work on making US energy Independent
3) So True
4) What? Have everyone pay their fair share? ...lol... how would Lifelong Politicians get re-elected .....lol..
5) Let's start with 10% across the board cuts in Government Spending with the exception of Veterans benefits, weed out the waste and corruption in all programs
6) Keep kids in school? What and have educated people voting in our elections? ..... lol....
I may add # 7), get rid of the Job Killing laws and regulations enacted in the last 20 years
Glad someone else gets it too
donsutherland
U.S. manufacturing is not as dismal as some argue. At the same time, it also is not as competitive as it could be. Changing trade laws won't necessarily lead to greater competitiveness and, protectionism, might lead to retaliation depriving U.S. manufacturers of access to growing export markets. This is a private sector challenge (short-term vs. long-term choices, addressing cost structure challenges, innovation and improvement, etc.) at least as much as a policy one (helping produce a world-class workforce via education, etc.)
Good points but understand that our trade laws are destroyed, politicians implemented these idiotic trade laws in the 90's that basically shipped our manufacturing base overseas. Like it or not, what made the middle class and what made AMERICA after the Great Depression was manufacturing. We made things, we produced things and we shipped them over the world selling them. Now American companies produce things in China and sell them back to the United States, what sense does that make? Again, horrible trade policies and we need quality policy to correct it.
How? I'm assuming you're thinking of massive deregulation. However, achieving greater energy independence is not solely a regulatory matter. Market prices and investment are key. Your 5th point would almost certainly preclude meaningful public investment e.g., to help underwrite R&D and/or help address externalities. In the current market environment, regulatory changes would probably have a modest short-term impact.
Permits and regulation to allow the production of various forms of energy to get this moving is what we need. Again, an all of the above approach, this LIKE manufacturing is just quality policy needing to be implemented. It's why Congress has a 6% approval rating, the American people understand that they don't have the correct focus as far as quality policies are concerned. Fix manufacturing and get energy production spiking in this country and watch doesn't the unemployment rate drop. The MAIN people that are unemployed (again the report shows it) are people without a high school diploma and with "some" college completed. These are those people who most likely have low skills and can't work in the Information Age positions, these are the ones that will work for the manufacturing and energy production sectors. So if you fix manufacturing and energy production regulation, you take the unemployment rate down from 8.2% to 6%.
Can it happen overnight? No, but we can FIX the policies in a short period of time to allow the process to then start moving though.
The structural mismatch between workforce skills and present/emerging labor market needs can't be fixed quickly. Many of the requirements e.g., in health care, require knowledge and other skills (e.g., enhanced critical thinking) that are difficult to build even over periods of time. Additional barriers e.g., geographical barriers, also exist. Structural unemployment cannot be solved in the short-term.
Well, again define short term? I'm looking at policy implementation that takes about 2-3 months, from there we can start the wheels moving for changes to start displaying in about 6-8 months. The problem with our political leaders is that their policies suck, ON BOTH sides of the equation.
You fix the skills gaps as I said, by cutting down on these dumb degree programs. Hell, I'm not for socialism at all, but the government already is paying for 70% - 80% of every student's college through grants and loans, so why not cut down on these dumb degree programs? These colleges shouldn't even offer programs in damn ART which has no real value in the market.
Fix manufacturing and energy, so workers with only a high school education or some college can get their a.ss back on the production lines, bringing back our Industrial economy. Fix the skills gap so workers who want to focus more on our Information Age economy, can go to college and COME OUT with skills that lead to real value in the marketplace, thus EMPLOYMENT in the Information Age sectors of business, finance, accounting, law, medicine, healthcare, nursing, medicine, engineering, IT.
These are structural issues, the US economy is still kicking a.ss, we are still number one. If you break down the unemployment report and you look at these issues, the VAST majority of these problems are POLICY issues.
Finally, tax reform and spending reform are needed as I mentioned. Social Security and Medicare won't BE HERE when I'm 65 (in 40 years) going the way it's going. We have to reform the way we spend, keeping the programs but reform how the revenue is being spent so we become efficient. For tax reform, a flat tax isn't LOWERING taxes, actually it's making taxes more simpler and eliminating uncertainty. These idiotic temporary tax cuts or tax credits don't stimulate shyt, because business owners plan for the medium and long term, not short term. I say SET the tax rates, LEAVE THEM ALONE, and LET THEM BE. Instead of every damn social issue, we have to keep discussing taxes, I'm sick of the tax debates. 3 flat tax rate systems, lower the rates, eliminate the deductions/credits/exemptions, and let's just call it a night.
Again, as I keep saying, the US is still number one, we just have structural issues that can be fixed through better policies. These are policy based issues.
Even with our now global ties to Europe (again another dumb a.ss policy issue, so another country is irresponsible and falls so now does the US?), again we are talking about dumb policy issues.
The private sector isn't the problem, it's these idiots in Congress!