Political Platform

Unemployment

Whew, I hate to think about this because it upsets me so much. Many people think of a “problem” and then think about a “solution” to the “problem”. Ugh! Unemployment is a complex issue and is multi-faceted, multi-tiered, and multi-dimensional issue. And unfortunately, far too many politicians have a limited memory and try to simplify the issue to their level of understanding. But since their one vote counts the same as one “enlightened” voted, the result is continued chaos and continued difficulties in far too great of unemployed. Enough! I’ll be more direct. We (our government) increase the EPA regulations which increase the cost of doing business and thus to balance the budget either have a reduction in force or convert many full-time jobs into part-time jobs. Yikes, let’s not forget the spotted owl, various animals and fishes that are on the protected species list and as a result, must be federally protected at the cost of many companies not being able to conduct their business in the protected areas, resulting in increased costs and lost jobs.

The topic of protection of species is another topic, which I will not address at this time, but will note that in the wisdom of our government, the U.S. worker is NOT protected and therefore always comes out loser to the protected species. We (our government) have higher corporate taxes than other developed countries, by about 10%, which cause many of our companies to do more of their business overseas – after all, the number one job of any corporation is to increase “shareholder value”. OK, let’s see, ahh, recently our government has announced the planned increased on pollution standards from coal-fired electric plants. The White House administration will roll out a plan to cut earth-warning carbon emissions from power plants by 30 percent by 2030. It would be the strongest action ever taken by an American president to tackle climate change. The anticipated result is that it would spur the creation of a state cap-and-trade program forcing industry to pay for the carbon pollution it creates. Recent figure I have seen project a $51B per year loss in GDP through 2030 and 224K job-loss per year, during this period. Obviously, some States will suffer more than others; like West Virginia. As I recall about 40% of our electricity comes from coal fired electric plants. Yikes, what’s going to happen? Of course the cost of electricity will dramatically increase and this will impact all families. The counter to this is the hoped for projection that natural gas fired electric generation will replace the coal fired plants and the result will be a major counter to the green-house effect. But please remember, that the U.S. is not the only emitter of pollution so even if we stop emitting pollution, the rest of the world will continue, and they have very little standards to reduction their pollution contribution. OK, if our electricity cost goes up, our cost of products goes up and we are then less cost-competitive compared to foreign competitors. In my opinion, we need to have a wide range of changes if we are to make a meaningful change in reducing unemployment. I believe that our government is the biggest problem in unemployment. They are not helping to solve the problem, they are part of the problem. It is a truism that capital money will go to where it is most welcome, and it is far more welcome in many places other than the United States. As a final comment, I have addressed other factors affecting unemployment in other places and I have not repeated them here. Unemployment is complex and for decades our government policies have had a negative effect on this problem. I believe that education of the public is a must if we are to cause meaningful changes in Congress to start the long process of turning this problem around.