I will concede the Republicans a point: government jobs cannot resurrect a flaccid economy. They provide essential services, and it is dumb to just eliminate them, but by themselves, they cannot bring the economy back to life. The private economy will have to do that.
Let me make this conjecture:
500 companies and individuals have it within their collective power to bring this country out of its doldrums. All they need is the will to do it.
Businesses don't hire just because they have spare money; they hire because they need to meet increased demand. But there is little investment in new plant and equipment in the US because there is no demand. We need companies to build new facilities and hire more people EVEN THOUGH THEY DON'T NEED THEM. We need them to hire and invest because it's the patriotic thing to do. Businesses: your country needs you.
American businesses are sitting on somewhere between one and two trillion dollars in cash. (Politifact). Forbes magazine reports that there are about 27 Americans each sitting on $10B or more in wealth, too. There's another quarter trillion.
Here's a few of those companies (Source I think the data is old; last I saw Apple was sitting on $85B in cash):
Company |
Cash $B |
Berkshire Hathaway |
146 |
GE |
111 |
Ford |
46 |
Microsoft |
39 |
Cisco |
39 |
Google |
26 |
I will make this conjecture:
500 companies and individuals have it within their collective power to bring this country out of its doldrums. All they need is the will to do it.
It's time for super-Capitalist.
Instead of sitting around complaining about government socialism and regulations, I would like to see these people sit down at Aspen or someplace and figure out how they're going to turn it around. We can even suspend the anti-trust laws, so they can work together to make this happen. Let's find out if they care about this country more than their own welfare. (I thought that's what Jeff Immelt (himself worth about $1B) was supposed to do, but apparently I was wrong; near as I can tell, he hasn't done squat. Doesn't care I guess.) Maybe the President should put the Koch brothers in charge of this, since they probably have the most ability to actually make it happen.
This is sort of the private equivalent of the super-Congress. Instead of coming up with a way to cut $4 trillion out of the deficit, they're charged with coming up with a way to add 4 million jobs, by investing their own resources. Let's see if these American capitalists can really build something or if they only know how to trade derivatives. If they fail, we sieze all their cash and let the unions figure out a way to use it. They should give them some incentive.
When I was a kid, me and my friends were asked to sacrifice our lives for a war in a foreign land because we were supposed to "support our country". Well now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country. Step up, 1%ers. It's your turn to put your corporate life on the line.