As we know, the United States has a giant long-term unemployment problem. Rather than using the full force of the federal government, President Obama is turning to corporate CEOs to solve the problem. The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) reports that the number of Americans who have not been able to find jobs in six months or more remains at record levels across the country. That is not just a tragedy for them, its a tragedy for all of us, and a completely unnecessary one. President Obama mentioned the problem in his latest State of the Union address, and is calling on big business to help out. On Friday, CEOs from Apple, Walmart, Boeing, and other megacorporations will visit the White house to discuss what they are prepared to do. Is relying on the goodwill of businesses that routinely cheat taxpayers, pay ridiculous salaries to executives, and maniuplate stock prices in order to enrich executives through stock buybacks instead of using their resources to train, hire or pay workers more really going to do the trick? These are the guys Obama is asking to help the unemployed? Ever since the pernicious notion of maximizing shareholder value took over business schools in the 1980s, corporations no longer even pretend their goals and the goals of society are in alignment. Often they are at odds, and corporate Americas war on the American worker is a national disgrace. When businesses cant get the job done of hiring American workers, the government is supposed to step in. We learned how important this is, and how beneficial to the economy, during the Great Depression. Federal programs created millions of jobs and helped lift the countrys economy and prevented the vast waste of human capital we have experienced in the aftermath of the Great Recession. But the lessons of the New Deal have not penetrated Washington, where even in the face of a shrinking deficit, austerity hawks still insist on cutting more government jobs and blocking any attempts to invest in our most precious asset—our hard-working citizens. truth-out.org/opinion/item/21732-big-business-is-hugely-responsible-for-our-major-unemployment-crisis-so-why-is-obama-turning-to-them-for-solutions
Posted on: Mon, 10 Feb 2014 22:07:44 +0000
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