We are going to have to have public works projects, like the Civilian Conservation Corps of old, because we are shedding too many jobs within the private sector. We are going to have to bring jobs back to the USA from overseas . . . manufacturing jobs, call center jobs, you name it.
We are also going to have to renegotiate trade agreements. The American worker has taken a shellacking in virtually every trade agreement we have entered into. Our markets are open to foreign goods, but foreign nations still severely restrict our imports.
Companies that send jobs overseas must be severely penalized, e.g., taxed. We should also adopt this example of German law: if you want to lay off a worker, you must pay him or her one year’s salary as severance pay. That makes it very unattractive for corporate cost-cutters to dump people as a means of making the quarterly report look better.
We must offer tax incentives for job creation. And we must dump the health insurance industry and offer universal health care. In this way, employers are not saddled with employee health costs, and do not have to pass these costs on to the buyers of their goods and services.
Oh . . . we also need to enforce the discrimination laws, especially where age discrimination is concerned. Companies should have to pay hefty fines for age discrimination, and the government must engage in “sting operations” to catch these companies in the act.
The mismanagement of the Iraq war cost us dearly. We are spending about $30 billion a month in Iraq. That’s way too much.
And the $700 billion (soon to be $5 trillion) bailout) . . . we could have had gold-plated health care and a college education for every American for that amount of money!