Economic Policy

Let’s get down and dirty and talk about what the economic policy should be for the United States. If you’ve come expecting a simple, pat answer, you won’t find it. Our economic problems are complex and interrelated and cannot be solved by simple answers. If you want a simple answer, go to an ideologue – you’ll get simple answers - they won’t make any sense, and they won’t work in the real world, but you’ll get simple answers.

What about welfare and work? The ideologue will say, “Make people get off welfare and have them work for a living”. Simple answer, but the problem is that is a goal, and neither a means nor a program to help reach that goal. Clearly our goal should be to get people off welfare and have them working for a living, but simply mandating that and ending welfare benefits for people does not help those people successfully work for a living. If that does not work, then what does work? What should work is a combination of education, job creation, and making certain that people earn a living wage when they work. That may be a simple sentence, but it is in fact a complex solution, and each of the above has its issues.

Let’s look at job creation first – this should be almost a slam-dunk. The United States has many roads, bridges, and such that are woefully inadequate. Just as Dwight Eisenhower in the 1950s created the interstate highway system, it is time for the government to make a commitment to fix up and improve our current highway system. What would this do? First off, it would take the laid off factory workers, and put them to work. This is important to help the U.S. get out of the current economic slowdown, and offset the losses of blue collar jobs to outsourcing.

This employment creates secondary employment, because the newly employed or re-employed blue collar workers spend the money they make. You can see this in both directions – close down the major employer in a small town, and you will see lots of other smaller businesses either close down or reduce staff. When you put these people to work again, the smaller businesses open up or add staff to provide goods or services to those who are now employed.

A lot of conservatives and neo-conservatives will ask why their taxes should have to go to pay for this employment program. Well, because it needs to be done, and because private enterprise can’t do it. Also, this kind of program would start to reduce transportation costs for all manner of goods. Why does that matter? Global outsourcing worked as well as it did because it was cheap to transport goods internationally. And it was cheap to transport goods internationally because the price of oil was low. With oil prices climbing and showing no signs of getting really cheap again anytime soon, if ever, some manufacturers are looking to move some manufacturing closer again. Improving the transportation system further reduces the costs of manufacturing closer to home. It helps this country, and puts money in the pockets of Americans, and not just Chinese manufacturers or Saudi oil sheiks.