Structure of Excuses: Why there are no jobs

[Coke]

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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/27/opinion/27krugman.html?_r=1&hp

Structure of Excuses
Paul Krugman

What can be done about mass unemployment? All the wise heads agree: there are no quick or easy answers. There is work to be done, but workers aren’t ready to do it — they’re in the wrong places, or they have the wrong skills. Our problems are “structural,” and will take many years to solve.

But don’t bother asking for evidence that justifies this bleak view. There isn’t any. On the contrary, all the facts suggest that high unemployment in America is the result of inadequate demand — full stop. Saying that there are no easy answers sounds wise, but it’s actually foolish: our unemployment crisis could be cured very quickly if we had the intellectual clarity and political will to act.

In other words, structural unemployment is a fake problem, which mainly serves as an excuse for not pursuing real solutions.

Who are these wise heads I’m talking about? The most widely quoted figure is Narayana Kocherlakota, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, who has attracted a lot of attention by insisting that dealing with high unemployment isn’t a Fed responsibility: “Firms have jobs, but can’t find appropriate workers. The workers want to work, but can’t find appropriate jobs,” he asserts, concluding that “It is hard to see how the Fed can do much to cure this problem.”

Now, the Minneapolis Fed is known for its conservative outlook, and claims that unemployment is mainly structural do tend to come from the right of the political spectrum. But some people on the other side of the aisle say similar things. For example, former President Bill Clinton recently told an interviewer that unemployment remained high because “people don’t have the job skills for the jobs that are open.”

Well, I’d respectfully suggest that Mr. Clinton talk to researchers at the Roosevelt Institute and the Economic Policy Institute, both of which have recently released important reports completely debunking claims of a surge in structural unemployment.

After all, what should we be seeing if statements like those of Mr. Kocherlakota or Mr. Clinton were true? The answer is, there should be significant labor shortages somewhere in America — major industries that are trying to expand but are having trouble hiring, major classes of workers who find their skills in great demand, major parts of the country with low unemployment even as the rest of the nation suffers.

None of these things exist. Job openings have plunged in every major sector, while the number of workers forced into part-time employment in almost all industries has soared. Unemployment has surged in every major occupational category. Only three states, with a combined population not much larger than that of Brooklyn, have unemployment rates below 5 percent.

Oh, and where are these firms that “can’t find appropriate workers”? The National Federation of Independent Business has been surveying small businesses for many years, asking them to name their most important problem; the percentage citing problems with labor quality is now at an all-time low, reflecting the reality that these days even highly skilled workers are desperate for employment.

So all the evidence contradicts the claim that we’re mainly suffering from structural unemployment. Why, then, has this claim become so popular?

Part of the answer is that this is what always happens during periods of high unemployment — in part because pundits and analysts believe that declaring the problem deeply rooted, with no easy answers, makes them sound serious.

I’ve been looking at what self-proclaimed experts were saying about unemployment during the Great Depression; it was almost identical to what Very Serious People are saying now. Unemployment cannot be brought down rapidly, declared one 1935 analysis, because the work force is “unadaptable and untrained. It cannot respond to the opportunities which industry may offer.” A few years later, a large defense buildup finally provided a fiscal stimulus adequate to the economy’s needs — and suddenly industry was eager to employ those “unadaptable and untrained” workers.

But now, as then, powerful forces are ideologically opposed to the whole idea of government action on a sufficient scale to jump-start the economy. And that, fundamentally, is why claims that we face huge structural problems have been proliferating: they offer a reason to do nothing about the mass unemployment that is crippling our economy and our society.

So what you need to know is that there is no evidence whatsoever to back these claims. We aren’t suffering from a shortage of needed skills; we’re suffering from a lack of policy resolve. As I said, structural unemployment isn’t a real problem, it’s an excuse — a reason not to act on America’s problems at a time when action is desperately needed.

[Coke]

I must say that this makes my BLOOD BOIL.  This is class warfare.

I know that the TRUTH is that there are no jobs because:

1.  We outsourced 99% of all product manufacturing to China.  Even "Made in Italy" is really "Made in China".  Read the other article I posted on this subject.

2.  We outsourced our service industries to India.

3.  We hired tons and tons of foreign H1B/L1 to replace US workers and drive outsourcing.

4.  We have the top 5% of the country owning the vast majority of the wealth.

5.  We have a broken patent/copyright system that keeps rewarding the same wealthy people.  Disney has a perpetual copyright on Mickey Mouse.  You do not have to INVENT anything anymore to patent - you just need to think up an idea even if you have ZERO chance of implementing it.  

6.  We have companies that are hoarding money for executive bonuses instead of giving bonuses to employees, hiring new employees, giving good customer service, etc...

7.  We have a media that is owned by the very people who want to destroy the middle class.

8.  The masses are poorly educated and are addicted to television and sports.  They are "distracted", "dazed and confused" and totally ignorant of the causes of the problems.  In fact, they are misdirected to direct their anger at the very people who can solve their problems.

[johnhp]

These righties have the gall to talk about people "hating America" all the while they are screwing over Americans

[nraforlife]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/27/opinion/27krugman.html?_r=1&hp

Structure of Excuses
Paul Krugman

..........................
But don’t bother asking for evidence that justifies this bleak view. There isn’t any. On the contrary, all the facts suggest that high unemployment in America is the result of inadequate demand — full stop. Saying that there are no easy answers sounds wise, but it’s actually foolish: our unemployment crisis could be cured very quickly if we had the intellectual clarity and political will to act.

........................

He is completely correct. Sooooooo why did BHO blown trillions on bankster bailouts rather thann directing those trillions directly to ordinary folk?

[Velleity]

He is completely correct. Sooooooo why did BHO blown trillions on bankster bailouts rather thann directing those trillions directly to ordinary folk?

Of course he's completely correct but he's not talking necessarily about "directing those trillions directly to ordinary folk" (although you and I agree on that point). Krugman has consistently said that the stimulus isn't large enough.

Build roads or build pyramids but build you must.

In order to to blame Obama, though, you have to deny the Republicans' obstruction. I don't see how you can deny that.

It's not so easy to pass legislation and when you have 40 Senate votes intent upon obstructing purely for their own political purposes, you aren't going to get everything you want or need.

There is a difference between Democrats and Republicans but that doesn't mean a few Democrats haven't been bought. You know who they are too.

[bryardi]

He is completely correct. Sooooooo why did BHO blown trillions on bankster bailouts rather thann directing those trillions directly to ordinary folk?

Well first of all, Bush did that in Sept 2008. But in any event, it was done because the entire global banking system would have collapsed if it hadn't been done. Climbing out of this mess would have cost even more if that had been allowed to happen.

Second, ordinary folk got all kinds of help in the stimulus, from increased unemployment to working class tax cuts to increased food stamps and student loan restructuring. And jobs, lots of jobs. There are several hundred thousand jobs that are on the chopping block if provisions of the stimulus aren't renewed immediately.

[Velleity]

Well first of all, Bush did that in Sept 2008. But in any event, it was done because the entire global banking system would have collapsed if it hadn't been done. Climbing out of this mess would have cost even more if that had been allowed to happen.

Second, ordinary folk got all kinds of help in the stimulus, from increased unemployment to working class tax cuts to increased food stamps and student loan restructuring. And jobs, lots of jobs. There are several hundred thousand jobs that are on the chopping block if provisions of the stimulus aren't renewed immediately.

All true, but how do you sell the idea that you saved us from the Great Republican Depression II? Since it didn't happen it's kind of forgotten.

The human mind doesn't remember pain.

[IM2]

The Troubled Asset Relief Program, commonly referred to as TARP or RCP, is a program of the United States government to purchase assets and equity from financial institutions to strengthen its financial sector which was signed into law by U.S. President George W. Bush on October 3, 2008.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troubled_Asset_Relief_Program

Know the truth NRA. Free your mind from it's current state of mental slavery.

[johnhp]

IM

Sometimes you ask the impossible from the trogs.

[johnhp]

He is completely correct. Sooooooo why did BHO blown trillions on bankster bailouts rather thann directing those trillions directly to ordinary folk?

NRA

What would YOU have proposed?

[IM2]

Sometimes you ask the impossible from the trogs.

My failure is that sometimes I forget who I am dealing with and begin to actually believe that these "conservatives" are rational human  beings

[bryardi]

All true, but how do you sell the idea that you saved us from the Great Republican Depression II? Since it didn't happen it's kind of forgotten.

The human mind doesn't remember pain.

Well first you'd have to get progressive Democrats to remember why it was passed and stop running against it. If we can't even get progressives to accept the reality of the financial situation, I don't know how the hell we're supposed to get right wingers to accept let alone admit their policies caused it.

[johnhp]

My failure is that sometimes I forget who I am dealing with and begin to actually believe that these "conservatives" are rational human  beings

Notice, the trog will not take up my challenge to tell us what he would do.

[Velleity]

Well first you'd have to get progressive Democrats to remember why it was passed and stop running against it. If we can't even get progressives to accept the reality of the financial situation, I don't know how the hell we're supposed to get right wingers to accept let alone admit their policies caused it.

I heard one of the professional left saying yesterday that they weren't mad because Obama couldn't pass thing like twice the stimulus (which was what was truly needed) over Republican obstructionism. No, they realize that "conservatives" have been engaging in a scorched earth strategy for no reason other than their own political calculations.

What the squishy professional left is mad about is that Obama went behind closed doors and negotiated to get what he could get from a Lieberman or a Snowe instead of sticking it in the "conservatives'" ears and losing all.

In other words progressives have caught some of The Stupid from "conservatives" and that's a shame because "conservatives" are The Stupid squared.

[johnhp]

The professional left?  Really?