Excerpt
Long-term unemployment is threatening to become permanent. More people, especially the young, cannot find work. It’s almost impossible to revive economic growth without jobs for the many people constantly entering the market. We need an all-out entrepreneurial initiative to stimulate a dramatic jump in job creation. Long-term fiscal responsibility is important, but we need a big stimulus program now regardless of deficits. It is the only strategy that can avert a depression.A complex way of saying you cannot have higher consumer spending (income for companies) without MORE Americans getting a paycheck.
More than 15 million Americans, almost 10 percent of the workforce, are unemployed and can’t find jobs. Including those unemployed for more than six months and too discouraged to seek work, or just doing part-time work, the rate approaches 20 percent, or almost 30 million people. Among teenagers, the rate is 26 percent; among African-American teens not in school, it is 50 percent.
Joblessness depresses economic activity and demand for workers, triggering more joblessness — a vicious downward cycle. It has often taken an external trigger to revive the economy, such as war, that suddenly absorbs all the unemployed and creates new defense jobs. At other times, it takes a Keynesian-stimulus package to boost demand. Or a major technological innovation — such as the automobile or railroads — does the trick, igniting work that generates buying power, rising consumer demand and economic growth.
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