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Bankruptcies Up. No Work. Need Action Now to Create Jobs
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How badly do we need our elected leaders to come off their extended vacations and get to work stimulating the economy and creating real jobs? Take a look at two items in the news.
First, bankruptcy filings nationwide reached their highest level in five years between April and June, up 11 percent from the same period in 2009. For the fiscal year that ended June 30, consumer bankruptcies jumped 21 percent, to 1.51 million, from the previous year.
Next, the Economic Policy Institute’s (EPI) analysis of the state-level jobs and unemployment report released today shows unemployment rates are higher in every state today than they were before the recession began. There are still 11 states with double digit unemployment rates. Only two states (Alaska and North Dakota) and the District of Columbia have more jobs today than when the recession began.
Nevada and Michigan have the highest unemployment rates at 14.3 percent and 13.1 percent, respectively, while North Dakota and South Dakota have the lowest rates at 3.6 percent and 4.4 percent.
This wide variation in joblessness clearly demonstrates the need for policies that target states that have been hit hardest. With five unemployed workers for every one job opening, Congress needs to help the states that need it the most. One example EPI cites is Sen. Debbie Stabenow’s (D-Mich.) bill to provide 20 weeks of additional unemployment insurance for states with 7.5 percent or higher unemployment.
Add to that new Commerce Dept. data that finds U.S. corporations created more jobs overseas than in this country, and it’s clear–as if it wasn’t before now–that we need fast action to create new jobs.
As AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka has said:
How are we going to rebuild America? With jobs! Who’s going to rebuild America? Working people with jobs”
Or as EPI says in its report:
Private businesses and 14.6 million unemployed workers are waiting to see if the government—federal, state, or local—is willing to act and get this country back on the road to recovery.
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12 Comments
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Who controls the presidency and congress? If you have control you should be able to fix things. Things are getting worse and the morons in Washington are on vacation. Man give me a break and get on there arse.
Obviously, the Republicans control Congress, at least enough to prevent any meaningful progress and frame the debate. The Democrats are doing a good job of their assignment – to prepare the return of the Republicans to total power. The new Congress of 2011 will only – only – pass laws to make the rich richer. Then maybe you could look for a job as a rich man’s lavatory maintainence man, and some day, if you are lucky, he might trickle down on you.
Democrats control congress. They have the votes to do anything they want. How come the economy is still bad and you have the power to do something.
We need to make these recesses fewer and shorter so that the work that is supposed to be done for the working people can get DONE!No encumbent who voted against helping the working people should ever hold a public office again!The less encumbents the more we have a chance of moving forward as a nation in November!
The government is not a business, is not run like a business and seems to have no sense for business based on what we’ve seen over the last, well, century. Why in the world would we expect the gov’t to “create” jobs when they don’t even seem to think a budget is important? “Government jobs” are a parasitic drain on the economy, only serving to perpetuate the illusion of adding value to our nation through gov’t programs.
Real job creation require real business to grow. The gov’t doesn’t understand how to do that, nor is it the gov’t's purpose. Reduce taxes so people have some of their hard-earned money to create demand for services and products that require people to make them. *That’s* how jobs are created, not by handing tax-payers’ money over to banks and failed businesses. They know no more of how business works than the gov’t.
“Real job creation require real business to grow. The gov’t doesn’t understand how to do that, nor is it the gov’t’s purpose.” This is the same rubbish that is pumped out every day, Here are some basic realities that “vandal” and Mr. Trumka refuse to acknowledge or act upon.
1. The fact is that “real business”, “private” for-profit, non-governmental economic activity, we are suffering from is called “Capitalism”. Capitalism in the U.S. has been on the decline for the last 30 years, as far as wokring people are concerned. Capitalism, in the U.S. and globally, has now collapsed. Capitalism in the U.S. IS NO LONGER CAPABLE OF GENERATING ENOUGH ‘LIVING WAGE” JOBS for millions of unemployed working people.
2. Millions of jobs have been lost as capitalist can make vastly greater profits by exploiting the cheapest labor on the planet. U.S. workers cannot and should not attempt to live to these slave-wage jobs. U.S. based labor-intenstive, industry cannot possibly compete against China,etc.
3. The essential public services that working people rely upon are being systematically destroyed. The top 10-20 percent wealthiest individuals and corporations have corrupted both Democratic and Republican parties to reduce taxes to such an extent that essential social institutions are being destroyed.
4. Mr. Trumka, the AFL-CIO Executive Board, is clueless as to what actually to do about the economic and political crises. Instead, militant sounding proclamations and speeches (We need jobs Now! Make Wall Street Pay! etc.) ad nauseum. “Wish lists” never explain HOW to accomplish the goals essential for working people to survive.
5. One definition of “insanity” has been to do the same thing over and over again, and expect a different result. Mr. Trumka, the AFL-CIO, and apparently the group “Working America” for unorganized workers, is now AGAIN going to launch a campaign to help the Democrats stay in office. The Republicans again are the “scarecrow” to frighten workers into supporting Obama and the Democrats this fall again.
6. But Obama and the Democrats, controlling the White House and Congress, completely controlled by corporate campaign contributions and agendas, have completely abandoned the working people of America. Wars continue and expand, Global warming (caused by polluting corporations) continues, the public educational system is being destroyed with schools shut-down and a hundred thousand school teachers laid off, etc.
7. Does Mr. Trumka, willing to give the Democrats millions of workers dues money and commit thousands of man-hours of volunteer labor, think there will be any “change” in 2010, after selling out to Obama in 20008? And what about 2012? The same old conservative and insane strategy?
8. The greatest political step towards change and to empower the labor movement, bring hope and massive support of millions of working people,
ito SEND A MASSIVE SHOCK WAVE TO THE INCUMBENT CORRUPT POLITICIANS OF BOTH PRO-BUSINESS PARTIES:
The AFL-CIO must now call for the creation of a new political party.
We can no longer support either Democratic and Republican parties, both of which are dominated by corporate money and agendas.
President Obama and the Democratic congress have continued the reviled policies of the previous Bush/Cheny/Republican/corporate adminstration.
Wars for oil and profit are expanded and not ended. Vast amounts of the public treasury have been squandered, while the needs of working people for quality public education, accessible public health, affordable housing are being systematically destroyed for lack of adequate funding.
Global warming and the resultant massive environmental damage have continued, as the Kyoto Treaty is not signed and profit-protecting “Cap and Trade” gimmicks are implemented.
The criminal Wall Street speculators and banking manipulators who created the current economic collapse are installed again by Obama into power to continue their profiteering.
…..
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10. The new political party platform, to be discussed and devloped over the next year, will prohibit corporate monies and agendas.
We will seek millions of working people to join the new party in support of the new platform. By 2012 we plan to become a “ballot status” party at every level of government and to run candidates at every level of government, up to the level of offering our own candidate for President.
The importance of job creation cannot be underestimated. A healthy U.S. economy depends on a healthy U.S. workforce, and it is because we have not moved the issue of worker justice and worker empowerment to the top of our national agenda that our economy is suffering. Great worker gains were made in this country in the Great Depression because worker organizing and effective collective bargaining were considered vital and valuable activities, as I point out in my book “Go to the Worker”: America’s Labor Apostles, published earlier this year by Marquette University Press. The book shows how the Catholic social-action movement worked with worker advocates of all faith traditions to help workers of all backgrounds, which contributed to raising the percentage of organized workers in the private-sector U.S. workforce to about 35 percent. Now it is only seven percent. This will not work. Worker advocates need to come together, as they are doing in Interfaith Worker Justice, to help bring this percentage back up. Morality and the economy need to be connected, and creating jobs is a good thing, a key part of getting back to our bedrock values.
There is a tendency to do a lot of talk, with very little action.
What do you mean by fast action to create jobs? What is it? How is it supposed to work?
So-called fast action can have unintended consequences of causing businesses to not create jobs. What business is really waiting for is an environment condusive to job creation.
@vandal: I suppose you consider 31 years as a Marine Machinery Mechanic in a Naval Shipyard as “parasitic.” You continue the myth that all government employees are a “drain” on the economy. I kept the aircraft carriers and submarines that defend the nation afloat and in good repair, along with Union Painters, Riggers, Machinists, Welders, Electricians, Sheet Metal Workers, Shipfitters, Shipwrights, and Engineers. Stop playing the right wing’s game and quit trashing public employees and government in general. If you want to parrot Reagan and bloody Maggie Thatcher, join the GOP, quit your union, buy a suit and open a hot dog stand. Solidarity Forever. An Injury to One is an Injury to All.
The politicians appear to me as if they really don’t know what to do – or don’t care too much.
There are an estimated 2-4 million people who have exhausted all 99 weeks of UI benefits and are now being forced into the public assistance lines, to file bankruptcy, live in shelters and some are even on the street. Sadly, others have taken their own lives as a result of this crisis.
I urge all unemployed (and soon to be unemployed) workers to join in the nationwide effort launched by the AFL-CIO’s non union affiliate, Working America – and get involved in the upcoming mid-term elections.
President Johnson said “We can have guns and butter.” But we did not want the genocidal war against the Vietnamese, and sent him packing with tar and feathers instead. Are we the world’s cop, and that’s all? We can make drones to fly around the world and robotically kill innocent civiliians in Afghanistan and Pakistan(with a few talibans mixed in), but our drywall is made in China. The government has created hundreds of thousands of jobs in the military, and made countless contractors rich, but can not build a levee that will hold or a bridge that won’t collapse. We do not need guns – we need jobs doing what needs to be done: educating and caring for our, children along with the elderly and infirm, lifting the working poor, and environmental projects to preserve our beautiful land before it is too late.
There really is only one party, the Republican Party, the party of the superrich. It has two wings, one which calls itself the Democratic Party. These two wings pretend that their differences are fundamental, but the vague differences are subtle and insubstantial, and have nothing to do with principles. Essentially, they are both steadfastly dedicated to keeping capitalism working to make the rich richer and the poor poorer. Since they have run Congress without opposition for 150 years, that is exactly what happens. Now Sara Palin and her ilk are seeking to form a third wing, even farther to the right. It is completely rigged until we form a Labor Party – then watch them lose their minds.