20 Million need jobs. What jobs should they be doing?

The latest unemployment numbers point to about 20 million Americans needing jobs. This includes 13.7 million getting unemployment benefits, 8.3 million working part time while wanting full time (call it 4 million) and another 2.5 million that have become discouraged and don't believe they will ever find work.

The question I have is where should these 20 million jobs come from? What occupations really need people? Can our demand for goods and services really justify 20 million more jobs even if we get continued economic revival? I just don't see it happening. This means we will have long term high unemployment. As productivity continues to increase then the numbers will inevitably rise.

Do we fix this or do we just let inevitable happen? I think we have to try to fix it. I think a new paradigm is needed where we recognize that in order to have full employment we probably need to cut the work week up between more people. That means less time working for everyone without any loss in national consumption. The flip side of this is that we might just find that if everyone works what we now consider full time, there will be more production and thus more goods to share amongst everyone and with more consumption the employers may just be able to swing the new higher wage costs. At the least, there will develop a price-wage equilibrium that allows everyone to see lifestyle improvements. Eventually, the whole profit motivation paradigm would have to be looked at again, because once the people see they can provide what is needed without those on the top reaping huge profits from their work, the calls toward a more socialistic based economy would be loud and wide.

Sometimes I feel the goal is to channel them into military.

reply to post by Ophiuchus 13


Unfortunately that's what i'm feeling too.

I think the real answer is to legalize hemp for textiles and use the seeds for fuel, and legalize high THC content marijuana for medicinal and recreational use.

It will create jobs in farming, transportation, industrial, and retail jobs. Not to mention maybe get some people to stop drinking themselves to death or driving drunk and killing other people. We could all be wearing clothes made out of US grown hemp, driving vehicles powered by US grown hemp seed oil and relaxing to a nice bowl of US grown weed!

but this country is too #ed up to let that happen

reply to post by sligtlyskeptical


I know what to do
We give those 20 million folks the names and addresses of all those fat cat politicians and bankers...
let them go break into their homes and run off with everything they can lay their hands on...

then these ultra rich will just have to buy a bunch of new crap creating new jobs...

Originally posted by DaddyBare
reply to post by sligtlyskeptical

 

I know what to do
We give those 20 million folks the names and addresses of all those fat cat politicians and bankers...
let them go break into their homes and run off with everything they can lay their hands on...

then these ultra rich will just have to buy a bunch of new crap creating new jobs...

I think that is what happens if we don't fix this.

20 million people could a do a lot to help clean up the environment!

Well let's see....If we started producing things for ourselves again a couple of good things would happen.

A. Many more jobs available for us
B. We would become less dependent on foreign nations....like China
C. We would save a hell of a lot of OIL because of the reduced rate of import
D. More taxes paid into the system to reduce the gazillion dollar deficit


But no, we don't want to do that because it would just be too hard and would upset too many of our friends.

they should be creating the goods we americans purchase instead of buying crap imported from china or other nations with poor human rights.

i agree, where?? where can we all work without some govt funded "busy work" programs..

will be back with more

They need to organize and march on washington watch those poloticians piss themselves when they see that horde coming lol.

Gauging by the number of phone calls people I know receive for collections issues, having someone that can speak a recognizable dialect of American English could employ several tens of millions of Americans.

reply to post by sligtlyskeptical


Well anything they can possibly find (like that's possible). I have given up I threw in the towel I am not going to be part of this system anymore. Well my spouse is until we save the money to go purchase some land and then we plan on getting completely out of the system, and since our children will soon be out of the house at least 2 will, we will still have 1 at home, whom we will home school, they can't step in (the government) because she will be a teen. And she will tell them to go # themselves (yes she is her momma's daughter!)
But anyway I feel this is the only thing to do, bring them down, get off their crap system and then they'll have to give. That's what you call starving the beast!

reply to post by Ophiuchus 13


you hit it, economic draft by proxy. desperate people will do desperate things:

commit atrocities against "others", while lining the pockets of TPTB? sure, as long as you get a cut.

sell out the morality to afford the new dodge cummins, house, gi bill? sure, as long as you are brainwashed youth.

support the troops no matter if they are nothing more than war criminals obeying war profiteers: heck yah, keep kissing the butts of every sellout degenerate willing to do whatever it takes to profit of others misery. SUPER..

Originally posted by abecedarian
Gauging by the number of phone calls people I know receive for collections issues, having someone that can speak a recognizable dialect of American English could employ several tens of millions of Americans.

PERFECT PLAN!
i get around 20 calls from all sorts of companys trying to sell me items and install free junk
too bad in can hardly understand half of them. and it dosent help that they are calling from half way around the world

ps. im from canada

Repealing NAFTA would go along way, but the powers that be don't thik manufacturing at home is any good.
I'm sure corporate America agrees. They don't have the EPA and OSHA breathing down their necks, limited benefits and lower wages out of the U.S.

Originally posted by DaddyBare
reply to post by sligtlyskeptical

 

I know what to do
We give those 20 million folks the names and addresses of all those fat cat politicians and bankers...
let them go break into their homes and run off with everything they can lay their hands on...

then these ultra rich will just have to buy a bunch of new crap creating new jobs...

Interesting idea. You forgot an important part though. You should also add the names and addresses of security, housekeeping, and food/wait staff that work directly for the fat cats. All that's needed for such research is time and eyeballs, and with unemployment like it is...

Find people with guns keeping you out? Ok... This angry mob is not raiding this mansion anymore. (For the meantime.) But the result afterward is that it's really going to suck for those guards when they get off their shift.

Why is that? Easy enough to figure out. Unless the rich are willing to house all their direct personal servants (and their families) on their own property, it won't be long before the rich find themselves with nobody covering for them. Because those people will be left with nothing to go home to if they don't have their priorities straight. And even then, people will have to leave for something or other - it would be a problem if they don't come back.

It will get fun when nobody wants to do things like landscaping or plumbing at big estates despite the great pay because of the potential consequences.

Now this scenario is of the "elites" own making. When running things like a mafia, you start facing the same problems that mafias do. I'm sure such stories about these things aren't all that unfamiliar in parts of South America, Africa, or former Soviet Republics. Yet they want everyone to live like that here too? That's what happens when you no longer have a healthy middle class.

Most people don't need a lot. They just want fairness and the ability to get on with their lives without interference. When those are taken away from them, things will get ugly.

Anyhow it's not too hard to avoid. Keep people busy and carrying on as usual. Even if that occasionally takes a little make-work in order to fill in the gaps. The idea of a shortened work-week and an increase in pay to make that work-week livable at the same standards might be some rather good insurance for the future.