.
Are there any profitable jobs the Government created ?
The business community OWNS the government, lock, stock and oil barrel.
Good morning Rosie
Yes, its just too bad many of those jobs weren't quite shovel ready....
There are estimates which say over 40 million people are either directly or indirectly employed by the government.
An astounding number considering that second place goes to Walmart with a little more than 1 million employed in the states. In fact the top 10 employers only employ about 5 million.
When the candidates talk of massive infrastructure spending, this is just more government employment..
When we hear about the need for more police, teachers, firefighters, etc., these are more government jobs.
With each new regulation, tax, law, ordinance, comes more government employment.
I spend just as much time it seems attempting to satisfy government requirements as I do trying to satisfy my clients..
As for the private sector creating jobs. well the government has its grubby little, eh...big hands all over this as well.
In many cases government dictates who can be hired, when they can work, how much they must be paid, the costs of employees, payroll taxes, insurances, s.s., etc., etc., etc.
It is not Mexico's fault companies are moving there. Mexico is not holding a gun to these companies heads. It is in most cases, it is over burdensome taxing, fee's and regulation which make the cost of doing business here prohibitive.
There is also governments involvement in manipulation of laws governing markets and rates, affecting investment. As exampled by which "street" is doing the best..."Dow hits all time high, again,,,". Wall st. is doing great...main st., not so much.
Also consider governments insistence on the use of immigrant labor. I am not just talking about, "who is gonna pick our lettuce...." . Most new net employment has gone to immigrants. Look at the S.T.E.M. fields. over 50% of citizens who graduate in these fields cannot get a job. It isn't because those jobs are not there, but because they are going to H1-B visa holders...
In general, Government has not been too friendly to the business community, unless of course that business has proven itself to be "friendly" to government.
So, what can business do?....whatever the government allows them to do..and more and more, that is becoming less and less....
When jobs are scarce people tend to point at whoever they think have the power to 'create jobs' and say they should provide more jobs. The next second the very same people may well say that the damn gummint should stop paying out so much much salary money to the people who are employed by the government such as the postal workers, teachers in public schools, etc. It is a matter of emotion, not reason. By the way, the average unemployed blue collar worker would not survive 10 minutes in a classroom with 30 kids ;-))
Thank you for a
very thoughtful and articulate reply stating your views. I do not share them. But you know I'm a life-long Progressive Liberal Dem and you know how we are. From what I have read the profit of many corporations has never been higher than they are today. So business doesn't seem to be hurting. At least big business. How much taxes do they pay? If they employ excellent tax accountants they could well pay no taxes at all. Of course business folks want fewer regs to box them in so they can pay whatever the he** they can get away with paying...the less the better. It makes for a bigger bottom line and happy stockholders. They don't want to have to give benefits like health care or pay for family leave or help with education . I'm not saying ALL business owners are that greedy or selfish des but all we hear year after year is that taxes are too high. Look at what happened in Kansas? Sam Brownback (sp?) cut taxes to the bone and crippled his state and the people suffered. You NEED money to run things and pay for things just for repair and maintenance let alone building new things and better things. Why should taxes be always on the back of the little guy? Why shouldn't the wealthy pay their fair share? See? Typical Democrat. I have never owned a business though I earned my living as an internal auditor/accountant. So I know how things work. I know all the paperwork that needs to filed..all the laws that need to be complied with. all the time it takes to make sure you are doing everything "within" the law. Sure they are a pain in the keester and time-consuming. Our companies have been audited and I know how that goes too. We were ALWAYS in compliance. I made sure of it! . A society has to decide what is most important. Your decision is based on which fight YOUR dog is in and of course mine is likewise. I think making a fair profit is appropriate. Business owners do not run charitable organizations. But I believe that government should not only PROTECT the people but extend a helping hand where needed. And a lot of help is needed at our level. I'm sure you're a good boss and look out for your employees and care about their welfare. But I think that is rare. The divide between extremely rich and poor grows ever wider. That does not make for a healthy nation . Anyway you already know all of this my friend. We just see things differently . So what, right? Happy Tuesday des! :) I'm giving you a lot of likes even though I disagree. Fair is fair. You did a very good job! ((hugs))
I know you're right. I think the teaching profession is the most noble profession and I get really ticked off when folks malign teachers. Thank you for y
our thoughtful answer JakobA and Happy Monday! :)
Hello m;dear...
My answer was an attempt to address your opening statement questioning governments role in job creation. If the question is, does the government create jobs?, the answer is yes. If the question is, does government negatively affect job creation in the private sector, the answer is also Yes...The points in my answer were to show why I believe those answers to be yes...
It is always my goal when answering questions like this that a broader inference isn't made.
As an example. If the question is, "IS the U.S. educational system successful?", My answer would be No, and I would go on to list points and examples of why I think so. This list would be specific to question/ answer and not meant to infer that Having an education system is a failure. So if the question is
"DOES the U.S need a good education system?", the answer would be a big Yes...If we then ask, CAN the government be of use in providing a good education system, the answer is also yes..
Rosie, It is not that I am against government involvement in our society. It is necessary and I am certainly willing to help pay for it. I am actually way more progressive in my feelings than you may think.
This may go on for awhile...grab a cup of coffee..
If you were to ask..."Is the California Bullet train a good idea?", my answer would be No..Why?, because it doesn't go far enough. It is a huge waste of money.. It is a bridge to nowhere...
It is not new technology, It is simply a slower, more expensive way than what is already available to move you from one congested area to another.
Now if the question is, " should we as a society move away from the car as our source of individual transportation, and find new ways to move us about more efficiently?", Absolutely..
Can Government and the private sector work together to accomplish this", again, absolutely.
This is something I have been extremely interested in lately. It may have been one of our discussions that peaked my interest.
I cant6 remember exactly what it was that led me there, but I started thinking of Detroit and what has happened there over the past decades, and what could be done now...I was absolutely disgusted how a once great city has fallen into such decay.
I soon realized that Detroit was just to big an area and problem to wrap my tiny brain around. So I started looking at other areas with which to play with. Somewhere to use as an exercise of urban redesign.
I settled on Gary Indiana, and for the past few months have been working on a renewal plan for the city.
I choose Gary for several reasons. First because it is such bad shape. It looks as though a bomb was set off. It is an embarrassment to our country. It is a city that has spent decades putting band aids over gushing wounds in an attempt to save something that shouldn't be saved.It has tried to hold on to a dying industrial base and has stood by as that industry has dragged the city down with it..
The second reason is Gary's location. As they say, Location, Location, Location, and Gary has a great one. 30 miles south of Chicago, sits on a major body of water, great natural resources and has a good existing infrastructure. There is an airport, highways and railways all existing. Gary is surrounded by a natural green belt that is being destroyed.
With all its advantages and relatively small size, I thought I could tackle it, and not with a band aid but a complete transplant.
So, the first question, where do you start. Answer...tear it all down, most of it anyway
But how. This would be where government and private industry can work together, since none of them alone could do it by them selves. Private industry would have access to all the raw, recyclable materials that would be generated through a demolition project of this size. Think of the amount of metals, wood, glass,, hard materials such as brick and cement products, all of which could be recycled instead of using new resources for these materials. Doing this has the added benefit of raising property values. It also allows for the installation of new systems such as storm water collection, waste disposal, energy distribution and transportation.
When we look at ways to improve transportation, do we only ;look at adding more ways to move people through the maze, or should we look at how that maze is set up and adjust that instead.
It is much easier to move a mass of people who's starting and ending points are the same then it is to move a mass of people who's starting and ending points are all different. So my Gary Indiana is divided into sections. These areas would be dedicated to living, working, shopping, entertainment among others. This way the majority of people going from home to work are traveling between the same points making it much easier and efficient to move them between those 2 points. The ultimate goal of my Gary is to do away with the individual need to use cars as the main source of transportation thus greatly reducing harmful emissions and congestion and replace it with a more efficient and environmentally friendly method.
We have adopted in our way of designing urban centers the practice of removing nature from these areas. Most cities are surrounded by nature but do not allow nature to be an integral part of the system. My Gary reintroduces nature back to the area and uses it to help filter the effects of development.
Instead of using nature to simply dump our waste, we can use it to help clean our waste.
My Gary is built on the idea that if government helps create a new kind of infrastructure, a new kind of investment in new technologies will be encouraged.
My Gary would be the place where new energy research would want to be, where developers and manufactures of new, green, sustainable products would find a friend in government.
My Gary would be the place that strives to be a zero emissions city.
This can only be accomplished through strong cooperation between government and industry...
So it is not that I think government is an evil that must be avoided, quite the contrary. I just think they are on the wrong track going the wrong way....
Sorry if I rambled on there, thanks for the indulgence and as always...
Have e great day
Wow . Thank you for your kind indulgence of my reply to your original reply des . I keep forgetting you ARE a designer so such large ideas grow easily within your creative mind. It seems you have many of them and they keep you hopping. You've thought long and hard about this I can see. How much would it cost to effect such a change? Who would pay for it ? Local government could not afford it so federal money would have to be used. Now taxpayers are notoriously selfish and short-sighted. Also cheap as he **. They don't want their tax dollars being used anywhere they can't use the results. If you want to repair streets in their town okay. But if you are talking about rebuilding an entire city from scratch they may never see you know they won't want their tax dollars used for that. They are not their brother's keeper. The general welfare is of no interest to the average guy. Only his/her interest. So how many billions of dollars would the project take? Thank you for your answer my friend. I wonder if there are enough zeros for you to answer those questions? How much will it cost and whose gonna pay for it? Happy Tuesday des! :) ((hugs))
Hello there Rosie.
A project like this could only happen with investment from government and private industry.
As an example. There was a bridge in the bay area that the city wanted to demolish, the carquinez straits bridge. The City opened up to bids, all of which were outrageously expensive.
The city could not afford it. Most of these bids were to demolish the bridge using the usual method of explosives and letting the pieces fall to the bottom of the straight. One company came up with a different way. They submitted a bid that the city could afford. The companies plan was to take the bridge apart and recycle the materials. This allowed the company to get its profits from the recycling of all that steel instead of just blowing it up.
Everyone walked away happy. The city was able to have the old bridge removed at a reasonable cost to the city, the company made its profit and there is also the added benefit that all this material wasn't sitting at the bottom of the straight polluting the waters.
A project like this has to be seen as an investment. The old ways just wont work.
The last idea the government of Gary had was to build a convention center/ hotel in downtown.
So they spent millions upon millions building the Genesis Convention center. They were hoping to get business to come to Gary. It never happened. No one wants to go to such a blighted city for their conventions. They never thought about what people would want to do once there. There are no districts in Gary to entertain people. No theater, no shopping, no parks, no nothing...It was a huge failure. Had Gary had a good infrastructure to begin with, a convention center would have worked, as it is, they just put a bow on a pig.
There are plenty of companies that would, if given a clean slate that would be attracted to such an area. If one looks at the waterfront of Gary, all one sees is waste leftover from U,S. steel. As it now sits, nobody wants to be there. Clean it up and provide a new infrastructure and that would change. Simply paving a street wont do it.
I also am not so pessimistic as to what people will accept as far as government spending. Look at California. We are going to spend Billions on a train that no one will use. As with the Convention center in Gary, the train will be in a vacuum. It doesn't take advantage of what existing infrastructure is there, and does nothing to alleviate the congestion of getting from the train station to the final destination. Plus I van fly to L.A. in less time for less money...
It would take a new mindset to accomplish this kind of a project .If the U.S. wants to keep up with the rest of the world we have to think big...
Thanks Rosie and have a wonderful day..
Hi des. Well the company that came up with a different approach was creative/imaginative/resourceful. I say bully for them! I hope they continued on in that vein and brought their unique approach to other problems to solve. There is no accounting for how pols spend money. None. Building bridges to nowhere as long as they are in their district seems preferable to them than funding food programs or education or health care. We keep electing these bums repeatedly. There is no accounting for us either I guess. Wherever the most profit lies for these guys is where they go. Anything less is of no interest to them. No exceptions! Thank you for your informative and thoughtful reply m'dear and Happy Wednesday! :)
