Sometimes the irony contained in news headlines is so thick you need a machete to hack your way through it. Take the following two headlines gleaned from one news site this morning.
"Obama Vows to Retrain Unemployed."
"Under restructuring GM to build more cars overseas."
While the first headline displays a genuine concern for those who have lost their jobs in the recent economic downturn, when juxtaposed next to the second headline we get an economic policy that is practically surreal in its dysfuctionality.
"Our unemployment insurance system should no longer be a safety net, but a stepping stone to a new future," Obama said in excerpts of a speech he was due to give later on Friday after the release of monthly jobless figures.
"It should offer folks educational opportunities they wouldn't otherwise have, and give them the measurable and differentiated skills they need to not just get through these hard times, but to get ahead when the economy comes back," Obama said.
I can’t argue with the sentiment. Giving unemployed workers an opportunity to retrain is a "New Deal" helping hand worthy of Franklin D. Roosevelt himself.
Why then does the government continue to rub salt in the wounds of the unemployed by allowing a huge corporation to move jobs out of the country?
The U.S. government is pouring billions into General Motors in hopes of reviving the domestic economy, but when the automaker completes its restructuring plan, many of the company's new jobs will be filled by workers overseas.
According to an outline the company has been sharing privately with Washington legislators, the number of cars that GM sells in the United States and builds in Mexico, China and South Korea will roughly double.
Are you freakin kidding me? What good can retraining possibly do if you continue to allow the few manufacturing jobs left in this country to leave for foreign shores? What type of jobs will we be "retraining" the unemployed workers to do? Flip burgers? Pick fruit? Carry a rifle?
The problem isn’t one of retraining. The problem is a lack of jobs for people to retrain for.
How on earth is the economy ever going to "come back" if we continue to reward corporations who "offshore" and "outsource" instead of rewarding those companies who continue employ people here at home? If all our jobs head overseas, all the retraining in the world isn't going to help our economy recover.
How about retraining some corporate executives in compassion, and civic responsibilty instead of rewarding their greed?
Comments?