Fair Jobs Policy

Putting America Back to Work

Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved

An Introduction
The Unemployment situation right now in the U.S. is the worst its been since the Great Depression. No other Recession over the past 75 years has produced as many job losses or slower job growth. We are in a desperate economic crisis. No other issue is more important. Without jobs and without job growth nothing else in the economy will work properly. Without jobs and economic growth there will be no way to overcome trade deficits, budget deficits or national debt problems. Our leadership in Washington on both sides of the aisle have thusfar failed to come together to solve this.
Copyright 2011

What is Fair Jobs Policy ?

Fair Jobs Policy is a critical part of Fair Economics. It begins with a recognition that for the past 30 years our leadership has placed Americas economic growth and workers second to Globalization. The outcome of that re-prioritization of economic goals has been predictable: The loss of millions of American jobs. Lowering of real wages & standard of living. An exodus of American industrial capacity.

Fair Jobs Policy posits that the only way to turn the American economy around is to focus on the American economy and good jobs for American Workers.
Copyright 2011

Weve seen the consequences before when unadulterated greed drove economic policy; however our leadership chose to ignore those lessons and enacted policies that put millions out of work so a handful of people could become billionaires. Thats Not Fair
Copyright 2011

Fair is Smart
One of the main principles of Fair Economics is that the Fair policy is also the Smart policy. This applies to Fair Jobs Policy as well. The engine that drove the expansion of our economy through the majority of the 20th Century was consumer spending. The great majority of that consumer spending came from working class and middle class Americans. That model was based upon opportunities for upward mobility, rising standards of living and wage growth.

That model worked so well that we extended it to Western Europe, Japan and Korea it worked like a charm there also. If something worked that well, why change it?
Copyright 2011

If it Aint Broken
Dont fix it right? What was the motivation for the great neo-conservative transformation that has been underway since 1980? In a word, greed. Another way to view it though is the abandonment of fairness. Fairness is a policy approach that put people first and the interests of the powerful few second. Those powerful interests still made enormous sums of money in a Fair Economy but that wasnt good enough for them. They decided they wanted to make all the money by changing the rules of the game. They decided to turn labor into an international commodity and turned their backs on the same consumer engine that made them wealthy in the first place.
Copyright 2011

Since 1980, a significant number of economic policy advocates chose to cross over to the ethical Dark Side we are living with the consequences of that action today
Copyright 2011

What Now ?
How do we reverse 30 years of really bad policy? How do we get America back to work and how do we begin raising the standard of living for ordinary Americans once again? We start by focusing on the real problem and the real problem is not the debt. The real problem is that our leaders and our industry no longer value the American employee. Workers are now viewed merely as a commodity that ought to cost less, work more and can easily be replaced by cheap labor from third world nations on a moments notice. We need to declare that Globalization has not worked as advertised and in fact has destabilized our economy.
Copyright 2011

Its Time for New Ideas

We will need to get very creative, very quickly if we are to have any chance to pull out of economic decline

Here are some examples of possible new Jobs Policies:

Support Community Banks (reinstate the 800 or so banks that have been shut down since 2008). Force large banks that received bailout money to lend to small and medium businesses. End the use of H1 visas, permanently. Enact the Jobs Export tax. (use that money to fund job training, business loans and actual jobs). Increase the % government contracts going to small business (to 35%). Eliminate Native 8a status.
Copyright 2011

Some more New Ideas

Here are more examples of possible new Job Creating Policies:

End all subsidies to Big Oil, use that money to invest in the new Green Energy infrastructure. Require that every university or college that receives federal funding establish a business incubator. Require everyone receiving unemployment to either take job training, perform job training for others or perform community service. Give the SBA loan authority to support employee purchase or creation of companies. Exercise Anti-trust laws and break up mergers & monopolies rekindle competition in marketplace.
Copyright 2011

10

Why these Ideas Will Work

The ideas listed share a set of principles, namely that there are more creative ways policy can drive job creation heres why they will work: Because banks either drive or restrict growth through lending the past 3 years has been a study in what not to do e.g. bailout big banks who dont lend and shut down community banks that do. Because small business drives job creation and innovation in this country we need to support it. Because employee-owned companies are focused on America and American workers. Because competition not outsourcing and mergers drives real job growth.
Copyright 2011

11

Summary
1. Fair Economics is Smart Economics. Fair Job Policy begins and ends with ensuring that ordinary Americans have jobs. 2. Globalization has not benefited ordinary Americans it has not benefited the American economy and it has not benefited the world economy. It has made a handful of people who care nothing for America, very rich. 3. Its time we talked about the real cause of our economic problems and only then can we offer real solutions. Those solutions must focus on putting Americans in good jobs, promoting lending and small business and by increasing competition.
Copyright 2011

12