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Double Dip: Good for Ice Cream, Bad for the Economy
What America needs is a federally funded public jobs program to put people to work immediately. Period. We need work and there is much work to be done. There are schools and libraries that need painting and parks and public spaces that need renovating. These jobs will not only give people a pay check, but an opportunity to help rebuild our communities, provide services to people in need, and improve our environment.
The number one priority of Americans needs to become the number one priority in Washington. Without a concerted effort at creating more jobs we face the real prospect of a second recession followed quickly on the heels of the current one or what is called "a double-dip."
Even while Washington debates a historic reform of our health care system, energy legislation to stop global warming and end our dependence on foreign oil, voters remain focused on one thing: jobs. This October marked twenty-two straight months of job and over a third of the 15.1 million people counted as unemployed have been looking for work for twenty-seven or more weeks, the highest percentage on record since 1948. Washington should be shaking in its boots. The rest of us certainly are.
And yet, the solution seems to be to go about fixing the economy the same old way, by fattening up corporate America in order to prop it up as the de-facto rescue squad for ailing Main Street. This approach is creating a top heavy economy that got us where we are today. Main Street seems to understand this much better than Washington.
What America needs is a federally funded public jobs program to put people to work immediately. Period. We need work and there is much work to be done. There are schools and libraries that need painting and parks and public spaces that need renovating. These jobs will not only give people a pay check, but an opportunity to help rebuild our communities, provide services to people in need, and improve our environment.
A community infrastructure program would create one million jobs at the community and neighborhood level that pay living wages, provide benefits, and create stronger, more vibrant communities across the United States. The Center for Community Change and partner organizations are developing a proposal that includes this concept, thus immediately addresses the current unemployment crisis, as well as the longer term crisis of joblessness, crumbling infrastructure and disinvestment in vulnerable communities.
Any economist will tell you that we cannot continue on a path of jobless recovery. Make no mistake, the fiscal stimulus package help stop an economic downward spiral. And much of last quarter’s 3.5% growth can be attributed to the recovery package, but that growth is just profits for Ford and not purchases by Fran.
The unemployment rate is the highest it has been since 1983 at 10.2%, and millions are just waiting for this roller coaster nightmare to be over and we are all contributing to rebuilding our economy and not just relying on corporate America. A double dip is only good when we’re talking about ice cream. Washington better get to scooping.
