Administration Needs New Strategy on Jobs
We are the only developed country in the world with no energy plan, no long term tax plan or any other long term plan. We have no job creation event on the horizon.
One of the short-term plans is to have companies with cash on balance sheets use that cash to hire workers that they dont need. Asking companies who dont need workers to hire workers for jobs that are not needed is a very unique strategy, to say the least.
The other short-term plan put out is an infrastructure plan, to rebuild and repair highways, bridges and airports.
When FDR put forward the New Deal, it opened up commerce because it created infrastructure that wasnt there. When Eisenhower created the interstate system it opened up commerce because it created a super highway system that was not in existence.
Rebuilding the same roads, bridges and airports we have is a needed thing. However, this doesnt open up commerce-it only gives jobs to those who are rebuilding these things for the time they are rebuilding them.
The McKinsey institute has estimated that unemployment could remain, unless growth returns and a job creation event happens, around 9% through 2020. Our country is not built to handle high unemployment for long periods.
One of the biggest concerns by the administration is those who have received unemployment benefits for an extended time-up to ninety nine weeks. Approximately 3.7 million people are scheduled to come off these benefits by the end of the year.
Whether these benefits should be extended further morally or not, the effect of this is without dispute. This is pure stimulus money-nearly all this money is turned right around and put back into the economy-over a billion dollars a week.
The current administrations fear is of unemployment remaining high or going even higher into next years election-and the political fallout that would ensue. An infrastructure bank is a great idea, but will take years to implement-this is a long term plan, something we dont do. So, instead, we put forward two short term, short sighted jobs plans and a nominal payroll tax hike that isnt even a good band aid.
We need to build infrastructure that opens up commerce. In West Texas, the wind capital of the world, wind farms sit idle at times due to congestion-not enough transmission lines for the power produced.
The government should step in and build the new lines and charge the producer transmission fees. Commerce is opened up and the taxpayer is not stuck with the bill. This could be replicated through the entire wind corridor up to North Dakota. This is just one example of infrastructure that opens up commerce and creates good paying jobs and long term employment.
Perhaps when the congress and president get back from their vacation we can get serious about job creation.
John Layfield, formerly known as JBL, was the longest reigning WWE Champion in Smackdown television history, retiring after 17 years of pro wrestling. John, a former collegiate All-American and pro football player, is a lifelong entrepreneur who has worked as an investment banker, is series 7 and 24 qualified, and is currently an active private investor. His Internet radio show can be heard at www.JohnLayfieldShow.com