EMPLOYMENT/JOBS
Whatever you think of the 8 years George W. Bush was president, the FACTS are that during his terms, unemployment was a constant 4-6%. During Barack Obama's terms unemployment spiked to 10% and hovered at 8%. And this was 2 years into his presidency, in case someone thinks the spike was due to the previous president's policies. (source) The point is, we need to get back to a typical and constant employment rate.
There will always be a certain number of unemployed as people can be in between jobs or purposely unemployed for various reasons. The unemployment rate at its highest during the Great Depression was said to be about 25%. The duration of unemployed persons has been so long during the last 6 years, that the Bureau of Labor Statistics actually had to change the way they had been calculating unemployment over the last 33 years! (source) This means unemployment is actually worse than we think.
KILLING JOBS
There are many factors that can kill jobs but the surest way is to project instability and hostility toward business and industry. When a business is uncertain about the policies and direction of the government, a business will not risk increasing overhead; including hiring more employees. The anti-business policies of Barack Obama have been the main factor in killing jobs. You cannot tell businesses that you intend to purposely raise fuel prices (to $9 a gallon) and expect this to be helpful. (source) You cannot tell business that you intend to purposely bankrupt the coal industry; especially since coal is 40% of all the electricity in the USA.
SEE VIDEO OF OBAMA SAYING THAT UNDER HIS PLAN, ENERGY PRICES WILL "SKYROCKET":
Add to this, Obama's healthcare program which has forced employers to limit many new positions to part time so as to avoid Obama's requirements. The government has waged war on employers and workers. It is time to stop that.
AN AMERICAN PLAN
First, we need to immediately determine the reasons fuel prices fluctuate so radically. There was a day in October 2014 when a gallon of gas at the area stations here in Indianapolis was $2.75 and then the very next day it was back up to $3.25. How do we have a 50 cent increase in one day? Businesses need to have some amount of predictability.
I work in the logistics/freight movement industry and fuel prices for trucks is a major factor in the shipping costs. There cannot be predictability with prices jumping 50 cents over night for no apparent reason.
Secondly, we need to STOP ALL OF THIS TALK OF BANKRUPTING THE COAL INDUSTRY. Energy doesn't just pop out of the air. As much as some people may want to have alternative sources of energy, that time is not yet here. Solar power STILL requires the use of rare earth metals to produce the solar cells and the energy captured must go into a relatively expensive battery. Wind power is unpredictable and is now being found to have adverse affects on birds, bats, and insects. (source)
Next, with the repeal of Obamacare, we can once again let employers hire full time employees, putting more people back to work making more money by allowing them to work more hours if they desire.
MINIMUM WAGE
I will briefly address the minimum wage issue here. As of 2014, there was a group advocating for a $15 an hour minimum wage. In Seattle Washington, they were successful. Here's is why this is not a good idea.
The moment you raise the minimum wage, all people earning more than that new wage have seen their wage-value decreased by the same amount; since they will not have their wages adjusted up. Further, historically; artificially increasing the "market value" of labor simply gets passed on as inflation -- higher prices. Not only because the employer now has to pay its base worker a higher rate, but also because the general market adjusts to the new mean value of the dollar. It is like arbitrarily printing money. In reality, ANY minimum wage affects prices. If it is assumed any kind of work is valued to be at least whatever the minimum wage may be; then this becomes the baseline for product and service prices.
If we really want to help out the person making minimum wage, we must encourage them to move on from these STARTER jobs. No one was EVER supposed to make a living on a starter job -- these jobs are typically for teenagers just entering the job market or for retired persons supplementing income. To have an illusion that you could support a family and pay for a dwelling and such on a minimum wage job is just not realistic. It is also not realistic to suppose we raise the minimum wage. All this will do is raise costs across the board and then we're back to people saying they can't afford to live on the new minimum wage. It is an endless cycle.
HOW TO FIX IT
Having worked in many industries and positions, I know how to be productive yet efficient. To tackle unemployment we need to ask 2 questions and address these questions separately.
Are people not working because:
- They can't find a job paying what they want/need.
- They can't find a job period.
We have seen what job killing policies have done to the USA and I believe once we change those policies, employment will boom. But we need something else. Oddly enough, simply talking about being pro-business and pro-industry goes a long way. The constant talking down business and free-market and capitalism has had a dampening effect. Implying that business owners make too much money or that they are only successful because government, is a negative factor. It is unAmerican to have so much disdain for basic capitalism.
Roderick Edwards is an ally of business and industry! I will encourage free-market, industry, capitalism and successful, profiting companies. I will not tell the shareholders or boards how much they can or can't pay their executives. That is NONE OF THE GOVERNMENT'S BUSINESS.
I will not use the government to prop up poorly ran companies. In this way, the market will correct itself.
I will work with companies wanting to relocate to the United States to make sure we do all we can to remove unnecessary regulations. It is time to be America again! The leader in free-market economics!
