What’s your prescription for weakening economy?
The economy’s spring slump appears to be extending into the summer, according to a slew of mixed data released Thursday, Associated Press writes.
What’s your prescription?
Layoffs are rising more than two years after the alleged “recovery” began. In fact, Georgia’s jobless rate rose to 9.9 percent in June, the state labor department reported Thursday.
Economic growth is projected to pick up this fall — but not enough to give businesses confidence to hire and speed the recovery, AP writes. The economy could lapse even further if Congress and the Obama administration fail to reach an agreement on raising the nation’s borrowing limit in the coming week.
Earlier this week, I wrote about my idea for stimulating more job growth.
Now it’s your turn. What’s your idea to turn around an economy that’s been struggling since December 2007?
- Henry Unger, The Biz Beat
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59 comments Add your comment
Bob Walters
July 22nd, 2011
11:30 pm
We’ve absolutely got to purge disincentives to work. Too many people are taking a free ride on Uncle Sam, just sitting on their rumps collecting unemployment. It HAS to end … NOW!
We need to reform our tax system to encourage work, not discourage it. The tax system should be turned on its head. There’s a lot of talk among Tea Partiers to use the tax system to encourage lazy sloths to get off their butts and maximize their economic potential. The less a person makes, the higher the tax rate should be. Earners over $1M should pay NOTHING! They are the job creators! People willing to get by on $20K should be slapped with a 50% tax. That should get them moving to get out there are work harder. There should be a MINIMUM 10K income tax, payable on ZERO income. Everybody should be working to the max to make this country great again. What ever happened to the American work ethic?
Changes are coming sooner than you think. Tea Party 2012 !!
free ride
July 23rd, 2011
8:01 am
(1) way too much free government available for doing nothing, either for individuals or corporate welfare through welfare, food stamps, medicare, medicaid, tax credits, agriculture subsidies, bailouts for failed businesses, giveaways labeled as “stimulus” ……. It just never ends.
(2) 30-40% of the federal budget is bloated and filled with waste, inefficiency and fraud. Difficult to cut due to politics? Almost impossible–but, the money is there.
A.S.Mathew
July 23rd, 2011
8:29 am
Mr. Henry Unger: Thank you for your nice response. America became
rich through her industrial strength. While growing up in India, I have
seen the majority of mechanical devices like car-plane-shaving set-pen-
ball pen-and even certain food items with the three letter word
“made in U.S.A”. Even as a young boy, before seeing the picture or
about the loction of the ” U.S.A.”, I wanted to land one day in
that great land. Thank God, after 21 years of dreaming, I was landed
here. Now, I can’t see any product with the three letter word in the
stores. The U.S. must turn back to the olden days to manufacture goods
for our use and to export. All those mega American companies got too
greedy, and exported our jobs overseas for cheaper labour. Some of the
goods became cheaper, but the vast majority of the cheaply made foreign
goods were sold for very high prices and the corporations made billions
of dollars. BUY AMERICAN MADE GOODS.
While I was in college, my father used to get many U.S. Information
Service publications like the U.S. Reporter. In one of them, it was
written about the salary level in between the lowest level and
the highest salary level. But, now the salary level in between the
employes of a corporation is dumfounding. While the bottom line person
makes basic salary, the top wheels take 50 times or 500 times of the
salary. In a free enterprise society like ours, legally we can’t put
restrictions on salary; but in our current financial crisis, the top
people must have some sense and rational thinking to reduce their
very high salary level. For some of the CEOs, it is quite easy for them
to lay off the ordinary people at the bottom and draw a salary of 10 or
40 million. For a single engine plane, the take off range is very short, but for a Boeing 747, it takes a long run way. Likewise, for
the U.S. with her vast wealth and the highest GDP, it may take a long
time to bounce back from this prolonged economic recession.
Mr. Unger, I am a strong believer in God. When I was landed here 40 years back, I was greatly surprised and
delighted to see the people praying before they eat in the restaurants.
I said to myself ” God is real and living. He has not blessed any
other nation with such an abundent supply of food of all varieties, and
the people are greatly blessed because they are giving you thanks
in the public without any shame”. Now, I can’t see people praying before eating in the restaurants. WE NEED TO RETURN TO GOD FOR CHANGING
THIS CRITICAL ECONOMIC SITUATION OF AMERICA.
carlosgvv
July 23rd, 2011
1:15 pm
The economy will turn around only when Corporations decide to start hiring and stop piling more and more work on their existing employees and stuffing their pockets with the extra profit this makes them. In other words, the economy will not improve in the foreseeable future. This is the new normal, thanks to predatory capitalism.
Pat
July 23rd, 2011
9:42 pm
The only cuts being referred to in the current talks is cutting domestic spending, why not cut out all foreign spending until we get our own house in order.
Rick
July 25th, 2011
6:24 am
Allie F. – help me here. Eliminate 25% of government jobs and staff – which will put THAT MANY MORE PEOPLE OUT OF WORK, and then you say jobs, jobs, jobs. I’m not for big government and it has gotten too big, but you seem to be making the probem worse before making it better. Maybe cut government pay dramatically and let those that want to leave go. Maybe we keep fewer out of unemployment line, albeit making less? Just an idea – we can put them on the street later, when the economy is better and we will have learned our lesson – to let the private sector handle COMPETITIVELY everything it can, not to socialize things.
Homer
July 25th, 2011
9:25 am
Aside from a huge government works program, the government has run out of policies to jump start the economy. Even the bubble blowing Alan Greenspan couldn’t help considering that zero interest rates are as low as they go. The pork laden stimulus bill helped save some public sector jobs in 2009 and 2010. I suppose that the government economists considered that things would have turned around by late 2010. You could blame tight credit but bankers are reporting that they aren’t seeing much interest in taking out loans. The American people are paying off their credit cards and saving their money. That’s the good news. The bad news is that over the years, we became a consumer based economy.
I would like to see a shift in corporate America to bring manufacturing, call center, customer service, and computer support jobs back to the US. In order to do that, you have to rework and simplify the tax code so that all corporations pay the same rate. Eliminate the politically and socially engineered tax shelters. I would think that you could lower the rate to something like a flat 20% and ensure that every corporation pays the same rate. No one wants to be the only idiot paying 20% if everyone else is paying less or even zero in taxes due to write offs.
Jon
July 25th, 2011
12:59 pm
What is the point? I can share my ideas of how to climb out of our economic depression, but my ideas go no farther than this blog. Henry Unger will not promote these ideas, they will not circulate and be discussed on their merits. They may be attacked by the political trolls that fill the blogs of the internet, many government sponsored and paid.
The idea is simple, extremely simple. Define our current problem, understand its causes, propose a plan of action. Implement said plan and monitor its progress. Modify as necessary to accomplish goals.
Our economy is depressed, because the middle class is being destroyed to support the upper 1%.
Since the upper 1% own the media, this idea is frequently denied or surpressed.
1 Rebuild infrastructure using domestically produced materials and domestic labor.
2.Rebuild our domestic economy by implementing tarriffs and abrogating unfair trade treaties.
3. Implement meaningful tax reform that forces the highest tax brackets to pay more taxes
4. Implement a long term – 20 to 100 years in design – energy plan, oil costs are destroying every recovery. Big oil has a vested interest in destroying all competing ideas. They must be reined in and regulated. A variety of energy replacement and conservation technologies must be explored. One size fits all just makes everyone uncomfortable.
3.rebuild our transportation systems – high speed passenger trains built with domestic labor, domestic materials and domestic technology would provide jobs, jobs, jobs and provide an alternative to air travel while also moving same day and next day freight.
4. Political will to actually do something to fix our broken systems, including shutting down our overseas wars and our overseas military bases. Stop the war on drugs and other boon doogles.
Provide free higher education for all who desire and can show the abilities in there chosen fields. A free 2 year degree, whether college or technical.
5. Begin funding trusts to pay for recurring costs, such as roads, post offices, parks etc. Once sufficient capital accrues, the interest from the trust is used for these recurring costs, thus reducing the amount of taxes needed to pay for these things. The monies in the trust could be invested in infrastructure bonds to rebuild and repair America.
6. These ideas are not new or radical, they are used in varying degrees in countries around the world, They merely require we work together to make the country better for all of us and they require a functioning political and legal system which we no longer have.
There it is Henry. What are you going to do with it? Nothing, just like every other blog you’ve written asking for ideas. Why Henry? Why?
The FNA Man
July 26th, 2011
12:25 pm
If the US eliminates income tax, replaces that revenue by pulling out of two wars, people will have more money to spend and save = stimulated economy.