Ideas To Fix Unemployment
To stanch the flow of continued job losses (with 263,000 jobs lost in September, up from 201,000 in August), the White House is weighing new options. Among them are more stimulus-style projects as well as traditionally conservative approaches such as tax cuts for small businesses. As Obama’s economic team pursues new strategies for America’s catastrophic unemployment, economists of all stripes are offering suggestions. Dire times have pushed some pundits to cross party lines looking for solutions. Below, five ideas for tackling unemployment and two warnings about what not to do.
* 1. Send Money to States – The Wall Street Journal’s Gerald Seib notes that states are more vulnerable since many are required to balance their budgets and are also better at pushing out jobs than the federal government. “Getting additional help to states in coming months might well be both the most efficient and the most politically feasible action Washington could take to avoid sinking deeper into the jobs hole,” he writes. “Getting money out to states quickly may have been the single most effective impact of the February stimulus package. That money — which went for construction projects, education and health-care programs — helped financially strapped states avoid even bigger disasters as they put together budgets for the current fiscal year.”
* …But States Must Court Businesses – Jennifer Rubin examines Michigan, a state that has spent and worked extravagantly to promote jobs without success. “For starters, it is one of the more heavily unionized states around. The UAW did its number on the car industry, and any employer coming into the state will have a similar experience with Big Labor. Given the choice between a right-to-work Sun Belt state and a Big Labor–dominated Rust Belt one, most employers will (and do) choose the former,” she writes. “Think for a moment (aside from the political impossibility of it) what would happen if the state passed a right-to-work law allowing employees to refuse to join a union. I’d imagine employers might take another look at Michigan.” Read more.
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