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Musicmystery -> RE: Is the Jobs Report "game over" for a second term? (6/4/2012 12:57:23 AM)
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"The United States is in a very tough spot, economically and politically.
"The 25-year debt-fueled boom of 1982-2007 has ended, and it has left the country with a stagnant economy, massive debts, high unemployment, huge wealth inequality, an enormous budget deficit, and a sense of entitlement engendered by a half-century of prosperity.
"After decades of instant gratification, Americans have also come to believe that all problems can be solved instantly, if only the right leaders are put in charge and the right decisions are made. And so our government has devolved into a permanent election campaign, in which incumbents blame each other for the current mess, and challengers promise change.
"The trouble is that our current problems cannot be solved with a simple fix. They also cannot be solved quickly. It took 25 years for us to get to this point, and it will likely take us at least a decade or two to work our way out of it, even if we make the right decisions."
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-fix-the-economy-2011-10#ixzz1woE2yKId
another excerpt:
THIS LEADS TO A SOLUTION THAT SEEMS THE MOST REASONABLE AND LEAST RISKY AND DISRUPTIVE GIVEN THE CURRENT REALITY...
*The government should construct and pass a long-term budget plan that
-Minimizes short-term pain, while
-Getting the long-term deficit under control
*This budget plan should be designed to benefit all Americans, not just special-interest groups or different classes or industries
*This budget plan can theoretically include an increase in short-term spending designed to minimize the country's pain, as long as it also includes a decrease in long-term spending (again, right now, the world is willing to lend us as much money as we want)
*One form of government spending that unequivocally benefits all Americans is infrastructure spending (when the projects are finished, America has the infrastructure)
*Infrastructure spending would help America address another reality that has emerged in the past three decades—the reality that the infrastructure of many countries in Europe, Asia, and other regions has vaulted past that in the US and made the US look like a second-world country
*Infrastructure spending would boost employment in one sector of the economy hammered by the recession—construction
*Infrastructure spending would involve fewer of the conflicts and misaligned incentives that infuriate many Americans about "entitlement programs," extended unemployment benefits, welfare, food stamps, and other government expenditures that seem to encourage sloth and laziness and "socialism"
*The 10-year government budget designed to get us out of our current predicament, therefore, should probably include a massive, multi-year infrastructure spending program.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-fix-the-economy-2011-10#ixzz1woETCpeu
The middle of the article is worth reading.
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