How Do We Create More Jobs?

(Forbes, 2014)

Job creation...

CSPAN asked 'What Would You Do To Create More Jobs In The U.S.?'

Sure, we've had rather steady growth since Obama took office, and turned the boat around, but not all of that growth has been in the right direction. We got sidetracked by a bunch of old white men in suits who meet up in DC every once in a while to do nothing. We forgot about the hope we had for change moving forward, for a change in the morally right direction for the future.

“Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist.” ~~ John Maynard Keyns on Intellectual Enslavement.

What do we want most? Green energy creation on a steep incline of innovation. That's what most thinking citizens would like to see. Oh yeah, and jobs. Why didn't we drive the traffic in that direction? To begin with, we created a search Commitee designed to gather, vet, and fund green companies with Stimulus money. We tried that. The 2009 stimulus set aside $80 billion to subsidize politically preferred energy projects. Of the many ideas financed, naysayers pointed at some failures, like Solyndra and the stimulus funding came and went.

We want to concentrate on growing the United States Green Industrial Revolution, but the corrupt and the soulless spend money everyday just arguing with us about whether or not we even need to with an endless list of fake talking points not based in any real world conditions. So it's been hard concentrating on the end goal.

Maybe it's time to start over, to REALLY look at our tax policy, our government loans, grant programs, and our nation's executive's compensation.

Using the definition of green companies/green jobs loosely, we could fund sectors on a sliding scale based on a combination of several factors including things like the # of jobs created in proportion to the money given.

"The markets dictum is that the purpose of a firm is to maximize shareholder value. That is objective number one, and the first talking point of most CEOs, institutional investors, legislators, regulators, politicians, analysts and business school professors." ~~ Milton Friedman of the New York Times

Money can work like a carrot. If there will exist any green element of a new start up included in the cost of its doing business, there should be grants available for that venture. Larger funding for potential small business/non-profit works should be available for those who promise to work in good faith to be as green as possible. By now there oughta be a generally accepted checklist of what that means.

"People are paid to maximize profits. Employees are not paid to be good corporate citizens. Companies are not thinking about their responsibilities to the country as a whole." ~~ President Obama

You can say that again, "Employees are not paid to be perfect corporate citizens," but rather perfect worker bees delivering honey to the CEO and the shareholders. With no financial incentive to think about people before profits, how can we possibly hope to change the paradigm.

"The undiluted pursuit of profits for shareholders usually ends up destroying shareholder value." ~~ Steve Denning of Forbes.

Corporate greed has to be dealt with. And we definitely have kicked the can down the road on that one. Sure, some banks have paid out, but the essence of greed, one of the deadly sins, has not been dealt with. The interwoven profit for the sake of greedy profit ethic involved in running a capitalist country, with no regard for its citizenry, has not been seized upon, reformed, or regulated.

Howz about we attempt to encourage proper Executive Compensation levels? That would be a start. What say any company that agrees to put a ceiling on compensation levels for their executives, should have access to low interest loans through the Fed. Low interest loans in general would solve alot of problems and the government could make money on the money. If a company agrees to reinvest profits (those available over a certain percentage) back in the company and literally create more jobs, they'd get to the front of the line. Basically, we should financially encourage proper Executive Compensation.

If money is what our business sector listens to, let's talk money with them. Make jobs, get money. Create a green product with a green company, get money. Give raises to those at the lowest levels of your company, get money for expansion (for corporations over 100 people or so). Maybe we'd actually start to foster civil behavior by corporations.

"Corporations are neither physical nor metaphysical phenomena. They are socioeconomic ploys — legally enacted game-playing — agreed upon only between overwhelmingly powerful socioeconomic individuals and by them imposed upon human society and its all unwitting members." ~~ Buckminster Fuller

What do YOU think we should do? What do you think we CAN do?

The Policy Geek