A Shovel Full Of "Shovel-Ready"

The friend of mine I mentioned in a previous post who was working two part-time jobs and starting his own small business after getting laid-off from his previous full-time job now has a new full-time job. This absolutely proves my point that if you walk into a prospective employer and show them that you are a worker, and not just someone who surfs the Internet all day looking for a place to send her resume to, you have a much higher likelihood of getting the job.

What continues to amaze me is how delusional many of this nation’s unemployed are. Manufacturing jobs are not coming back, yet every day I hear the lament for those “good manufacturing jobs” that were lost. I realize the situation for those people is tough – they got into manufacturing when they were young, were often paid well beyond their skill level because of union contracts that ultimately cost them their job when the company was forced to look for cheaper labor elsewhere. Now they still don’t have any skills and no prospects. The world changed while they weren’t paying attention. They were lured into Bama’s slick presentation with the promise of “shovel-ready jobs” but no such thing materialized, despite a trillion dollars worth of wasted idealism.

So now what? It seems highly likely that unemployment will remain around 10% for the foreseeable future. My guess is it will be a generation before we see unemployment back down to 5% like it was during the Bush years. Two things must happen. First, businesses must regain faith that the government will not punish them for success. “Cap And Trade” would be another devastating blow to private sector industry, and must be defeated. It is obvious now that we can either have extreme environmentalism or we can have a prosperous economy, but not both, at least no right now. Obama’s promise to create 5 million new clean energy jobs could still happen, but at the cost of countless jobs lost to layoffs as companies look to cover the higher energy costs. We can move in that direction, but it cannot happen overnight. Increasing government regulation as a knee-jerk reaction to the Bank failures and the mortgage debacle will only hinder company’s attempts to access new revenue streams. The trade war the Democrats are instigating with China will further impact an already massive trade imbalance. And liberal’s continued attacks on CEO salaries and their vilification of corporations has and will continue to result in trepidation or outright unwillingness to expand into markets that are openly hostile to their very existence. Liberalism and its extensions are the root of the demise of capitalism, and they are starting to own up to the fact that they like it that way. Until American voters restore sanity to the political force of the economy it will continue to sputter.

The second requirement is that Americans must become better educated, and I don’t necessarily mean college. In today’s workforce it is much more valuable to be specialized and then find a job that applies that focus than to fumble around with a Liberal Arts degree. Technical colleges will become the primary avenue from which the next generation of workers achieves a functional education. Those who fail to continue education will have limited value in the economy going forward. Those “good jobs” of the past have no relevance, and attempts by unions and Democrats to cling to them for purely political reasons is a drain against the producers of wealth.

“Shovel-ready”, “Hope and Change”. America was sold on meaningless slogans. Obama is nothing more than a catch-phrase comic, with his presidency as the punch line and American liberties as the butt of every joke. Until we get these jokers out of power and then take it upon ourselves to increase our individual value in a competitive global economy collectively we will continue to tread water. On the other hand, for those of us that do choose to better ourselves we should have an easier go of it compared to those that don’t. My friend’s success is proof of that.