ABC's of an Effective Jobs Initiative

Driving the Learning Curve Express around backroads of the lower 48, my observation is America's human infrastructure is on life support. The latest unemployment indicators aren't real encouraging. CNN reports...

...the slide may signal that more filers are dropping off those rolls into extended benefits....The figures do not include those who have moved to state or federal extensions, or people whose benefits have expired.

In an op-ed column in The Baltimore Sun, Julianne Malveaux validates my ideas.

To commemorate this anniversary of the Great Depression, the Obama administration ought to engage in Depression-era tactics to jump-start the economy. We have spent $700 billion bailing out banks and $787 billion in economic stimulus. But we have not focused on directly creating employment, on lifting people at the bottom.

Come on! Let's kick something in gear that works.

So, Obama administration, why not help good Americans who have lost their jobs, and are rapidly losing faith in anyone's ability to restore America's greatness? Let's get ordinary people back to work. Here are the ABCs of my ideas, with plenty room for additions:

• Auto repair--all those shuttered car dealerships have repair shops. Enlist unemployed skilled repair techs and get them busy repairing cars of people who cannot afford repairs. Tire, battery, and parts sales will generate jobs all the way to manufacturing and raw materials.
• Beautification/clean-up--most of America can use a sprucing up, from parks to pavilions. Picking up litter, painting, or washing windows, lots of people can be kept busy, and local governments could use an infusion of cash to oversee this massive effort.
• Child care--help child care providers improve their facilities or to expand their capacity to those who can't afford/qualify for child care subsidies.
• Do-It-Yourself-ers Home Improvement--connect skilled but idled tradespeople with income qualified households who need work done on their homes.
• Education--Using out of work educators, set up education enrichment projects for people who need/want to develop their knowledge.
• Flags- U.S. flags are faded, worn, ragged. Let's replace them for free or nominal cost. Raw materials, manufacturing, delivery, distribution of flags will generate lots of jobs.
• Guide, Guide America. Replace or add to road signs so people can find their way without having to drive unnecessarily.

Obviously more can be added to this list. This massive war on unemployment, Restore America, should include people not fitting into ordinary work places, those hard to employ, people tired of sitting around farming their Facebook crops, etc.

Your administration has pretty smart people. This effort can be managed at the local level. City, township, and county governments would welcome an infusion of funding for projects benefiting their citizenry.

Seems to me that we make some projects harder than they need to be and then complain that everything is bad. Let's start at the very beginning, the ABC's....

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