Al Franken is my senator. Recently he circulated this opinion piece on his SEEDS legislation, which amounts to government money for jobs in small businesses. Here is his proposal:
“I want to talk about jobs. Lately, it seems that everyone says they want to talk about jobs, and that we’ll get around to tackling jobs next week, or the week after. But I’d like to kick off the discussion right now.
I wouldn’t be the first to observe that times are tough. Our nation is still reeling from the most disastrous economic collapse in a generation. Many families in Minnesota are relying on their unemployment benefits to put food on the table and pay their rent. For every single job opening, there are six unemployed workers, and too many people are left without options or hope in this dismal job market.
In the fall of 2008, when Wall Street’s financial institutions started falling like dominoes, our regulators told us that Congress had to pass the bailout now, or we face total economic ruin. This really seemed to get Congress moving; it passed the legislation in a matter of days.
My feeling is that the American people, especially those folks out of work, need their advocates to have the exact same urgency. Because if we don’t act now, Main Street will continue to suffer. And this unemployment crisis we’re in will drag on and on.
So we’ve seen Cash for Clunkers, we’ve talked about Cash for Caulkers, now I’m proposing “Cash for Jobs.”
My proposal is modeled after a very successful program that we used for several years in Minnesota during the recession in the 1980s. Minnesota’s program got more than 7,400 people back to work in its first six months, and created nearly 15,000 permanent jobs.
“Cash for Jobs” will incentivize rapid job creation by offering small and medium-sized companies and nonprofits a direct wage subsidy to hire new workers and expand their operations. Small businesses are the driving force behind our economy, and they want to grow — but many of them just need an added infusion of capital since the bailout hasn’t trickled down to them. [I would like to see some stats on this].
Additionally, employers who hire recently returned Iraq and Afghanistan vets would be eligible for a 60 percent subsidy. The subsidy would be available for a 12-month period, and the employer would commit to keeping the worker on for an additional three months after the subsidized year.
Jim Glowacki used Minnesota’s program in the 1980s. After he lost his job, he decided to start his own business. He had few resources and little ability to borrow money. He used Minnesota’s program to hire his first two employees and now his company, the JPG Group, employs 17 full-time people and has an annual payroll of $800,000. His story epitomizes the incredible potential for this approach to spur job creation.
The second component of “Cash for Jobs” is direct grants to states, localities and tribes to fund “green” jobs retrofitting public buildings. In addition to creating green jobs, these retrofits will increase energy efficiency, decreasing our dependence on foreign oil and saving taxpayers’ money.
Too many of our public buildings, public housing, libraries and schools are becoming outdated and don’t utilize the new green technologies available today. There are many skilled workers on the bench who already have the training they need to immediately get to work on these projects.
These new projects will increase demand for energy-efficient windows and doors and heating systems and insulation, providing a boost to our nation’s stalled manufacturing sector.
Minnesota is the Silicon Valley of windows. We are home to the nation’s leaders in energy-efficient windows, which makes some sense, given our winters. Retrofitting public buildings is a win for everyone — Minnesota workers, localities, taxpayers, manufacturing and the environment. This is a win-win-win-win-win.
If we reallocate $10 billion from the bailout funds and pass this proposal into law, we have the potential to create up to 15,000 jobs in Minnesota. Many employers will convert their participating workers into permanent employees, setting them up for a long-term career.
It’s this kind of bold proposal we need. Crafted and tested in Minnesota, it has the real potential to help our entire nation right now.”
This was printed in many Minnesota newspapers early this week. It got mixed reactions. It seems overall to be a good idea, but it assumes that jobs are all that people need. Maybe we need a new economic system that is more humane. All recent legislation having to do with the economy is simply propping up a flawed system. What does this accomplish? This legislation assumes that there are lots of retrofitting jobs for the unemployed peons (are there?) or lots of other small-business jobs, and that all people need to participate in this great capitalist system is a good job. It also assumes that small business want to hire more people. Some of them don’t. Maybe many of them don’t.
In addition, U.S. capitalism is a system that encourages underemployment. People who are smart and talented often find themselves doing menial, mindless or physical labor that is a waste of their time and talents. Capitalism thrives on that. Politicians act like they are doing you a favor if they help find you a job like retrofitting buildings or anything that is “permanent”. Do they really think this is the type of work that people are clamoring to do on a permanent basis? Politicians must think people are really quiet unambitious.
Underemployment (and often ensuing unemployment) leads to all kinds of health and psychological problems, which benefits the health insurance industry. Now that is the free market at work! What Franken is promoting is jobs, and if you can turn off your mind and not care what you do for a while, a job is probably just exactly what people want. Jobs are obviously important when people are trying to pay their bills and not lose their homes, but for the long term most people want more than a “job”. That’s why many people are going even further into debt right now and going back to school. Yes, colleges and universities are actually gaining students right now, despite that tuitions have increased.
Most people would rather think and be challenged, so a mere job (such as retrofitting) is not going to be something they would be satisfied with for long. It would be a mistake to assume that today’s retrofitter wants to do work like that forever.
The problem with “job creation” is that it usually doesn’t create good careers for people unless it’s combined with education. If our government wanted to create really good jobs for people, it would start by subsidizing good college or trade school educations for people so that they would be more equipped for real good jobs. How is a person supposed to get a real green job without education, when most real green jobs are either scientific, entrepreneurial, or very technical? Green jobs should be jobs for everyone, including women; in fields other than energy and construction, too. Most of the green jobs politicians talk about are traditional male jobs. What about the women who are used to ‘white collar’ work, thinking and decision-making jobs?
Capitalism itself does not really deserve to last much longer for all the harm its done. It has bred incredible greed, which has nearly led to its implosion several times in the last 15 years. The first humans were communists by necessity. Advocates of capitalism are loathe to regulate it, which by itself is enough to make it spin out of control. When it finally collapses I’m afraid there won’t be jobs for anyone for awhile, at least not in the “getting a paycheck” sense. Maybe it’s time to start looking for a better economic system now before our capitalism falls apart.
But in case you believe that getting a job for the sake of having a job is important, so people can pay for overpriced processed food, overpriced health care, and dirty energy that pollutes our atmosphere, here is some background on what Al Franken is trying to promote. It is something that would probably help people out with paying their bills, at least in the short term.
Legislation Uses Existing TARP Funds To Put Around 15,000 Minnesotans To Work
Washington, D.C. [Jan 26, 2010] – U.S. Senator Al Franken (D-Minn.) introduced his plan to put around 15,000 Minnesotans back to work. The “Strengthening Our Economy Through Employment and Development (SEED) Act,” informally known as “Cash for Jobs,” would take $10 billion in existing funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and re-allocate it to creating jobs in the private and public sectors. This means the initiative would create jobs without adding to the national debt or deficit.
Sen. Franken’s ‘Cash for Jobs’ plan is based on a successful 1983-1987 Minnesota program, the Minnesota Emergency Employment Development program, that got 7,400 workers back on the job in its first six months. Franken’s bill provides $5 billion for wage subsidies to incentivize hiring in the private sector. The additional $5 billion will provide direct grants to states, local governments, and tribes to create green jobs.
“As our country continues to face double-digit unemployment rates, and Minnesotans struggle looking for work, Congress must enact legislation that quickly and efficiently creates jobs,” said Sen. Franken. “Cash for Jobs will rapidly create jobs in the private and public sector, encourage the expansion of small and medium-sized businesses, and increase the energy efficiency of public buildings. It will boost the economy where we need it most – on Main Street.”
The SEED Act will reallocate $10 billion from TARP to fund its programs and has the potential to rapidly create up to 500,000 jobs in an efficient way and at a lower cost per job than other proposals. These new jobs will stimulate our economy, increase tax revenue, and decrease the burden on social benefit programs (such as unemployment insurance, COBRA subsidies, and food stamps). Jobs created by the SEED Act will be easy to track, and are administered though an existing infrastructure.
The SEED Act was developed in collaboration with the JOBS NOW Coalition (Minnesota), Minnesota AFL-CIO, HIRED (Minnesota), Affirmative Options Coalition (Minnesota), and the Minnesota Workforce Council Association.
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