what would you do do to reduce unemployment

Our brave new world is charaterized by persistent unemployment at 10%+ in both Europe and US if you count those who have stopped looking becaUSE THERE IS NOTHING OUT THERE. Pushing jobs offshore is a huge reason. No one is suggesting
how to emply tens of millions of people who have have no opportunity. Retraining them to work in IT is absurd.

Why not reduce imports of textiles, shoes, clothing and wood products to zero over the next 5 years? That would create millions of jobs in the US? I am in favor of free trade where it makes sense but why "cut off your nose to spite your face".
It seems to me that our government has no strategy other than to source cheap product. Our first obigation should be to the 300 million people who live here and want to work here.

Unfortunately, we could not afford the products that would be made here due
to the wage rate.
Low cost labor around the world allows us to live in a very comfortable
environment.
It is not the government fault or responsibility to supply the labor force.

We need to ask ourselves, when was the last time we bought something
locally made?
Did we struggle with the thought that it would be cheaper to get at the big
box store, where most items come from off shore?

Selectively choosing which products to ban from import will do nothing
towards the re-employment if the purchasing public can’t afford them.

For the politicians to simply say that business should start hiring people
is also absurd.
What would those new hired employees do?
Stand around and collect a paycheck?
Not much different than welfare.

I would put forth the idea that people spending money to purchase products
is the root cause of higher employment.
After the banks cut the credit limit to its clients ( you and me ) the
mindset of spending on what would be frivolous items ended.

We do have a choice in helping our economy.
Either for the good or the bad.

Who among us would be willing to take a pay cut, just to lower the cost of
the product for the consumer?
Not many, would be my guess.

If the government would end the welfare support, I would bet we would see a
new uptick in the self-employed.

“Give a man a fish and he eats for a day,
teach a man to fish and he can feed himself for life.”

One thing we could do is to reduce the U.S. corporate tax rate. The U.S. Rate is 39.2% and, for example, the Ireland corporate tax rate is 12.5%.
If you were building a factory,which would obviously employ many people, would you build it where you would pay 39.2% taxes or 12.5% taxes?

Dennis

Because of loop holes and tax credits, most of the large corporations pay a small portion of tax. Close the loop holes then lower the tax rate.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by dennis thompson

One thing we could do is to reduce the U.S. corporate tax rate. The U.S. Rate is 39.2% and, for example, the Ireland corporate tax rate is 12.5%.
If you were building a factory,which would obviously employ many people, would you build it where you would pay 39.2% taxes or 12.5% taxes?

Dennis

---

I think that a fundamental problem that is causing our current unemployment is a lack of consumer confidence in the economy and government in general. During the last three years real estate values have plummeted, a lot of investments and savings evaporated, and the amount of individual liability that we all are burdened with due to the extreme national debt is bringing everybody down. As a result, a lot of folks are pessimistic or afraid to spend, and that is perpetuating the problem. Before a company can expand production (and jobs), there needs to be demand for their products and services, and without folks willing to buy, there is no increase in demand.

Who has confidence in our political leaders’ ability to solve the problem? Not many. Today it seems as if both political parties put their own best interests ahead of the best interests of the country. They are more focused on either making the other guy “look bad” or deny the other party a “win”, even when it’s the right thing for the country. As a result, we not only have stalemate, there is so much misinformation spread around who knows what to believe any more? This in turn adds to the lack of confidence in government, and by association – the economy.

For starters, we need a restoration of confidence amongst the general public that will lead them to start increasing spending and thus *demand* for products. Next, we need a national effort (not necessarily govt led, but led by society) to encourage folks to buy domestically produced items, and some tax and regulatory changes to provide additional incentives. Finally, as things get moving again we need to drastically scale back Federal and State spending and get the budget and debt back under control.

When making purchases, I myself now check to see where an item is produced, and I will pay 10% - 20% extra for North American produced products (US, Canada, Mexico) if I have the choice. I’ll also favor products produced by countries that are strongly allied with the US.

On a side note, where jobs are available (mainly blue-collar fields) a lot of folks are unemployed -that could be employed - because they can't pass a drug test. Too many people will never achieve their true potential because of their addictions, and it's a real tragedy. As a society, we need to do a better job of helping people to not start down this dark path.

If I just want to pick a couple of things without getting too deep into the conversation? Easy.

Lower taxes, tort reform.

Well spoken Sir!

Getting rid of any number of .gov lettered acronym agencies would be a step in the right direction...

SMC TOS
1. Religion and Politics

All members shall abstain from engaging in religious or political debate.