Editorial
Front Page - Friday, February 19, 2010
View from the Cheap Seats
Help wanted
Bill James
WmJamesJr@aol.com
So, Monday morning I am driving to work listening to NPR. There is some story on about the push to get a jobs bill through Congress. Of course, the speculation is that the bill will basically do nothing and will serve as nothing more than a talking point for the folks running for re-election this fall. It will assuredly create jobs, but at a level too small to bring any real relief to the ten percent of unemployed workers nationwide.
The point that seemed to catch my attention was the claim that there are approximately 11 million less jobs in the United States today then there was at the start of the century. I don’t know how accurate these numbers are, but you combine half of that number with the increase in our population over the last decade and it helps explain the shortage of jobs here in the United States. Of course, the economic woes don’t help. It highlights a problem that is not going away: How are we going to get back to the point of full employment?
I own a business. I have a license and a career that will allow me to work and have an income as long as I am physically able to do so. I am lucky. That is not to say that I have not worked hard to get where I am, but there is little that can happen to me that would prevent me from having the ability to earn money. It may not be as much as I want, but it is largely there for the taking. I love being a lawyer; which brings me to my point.
I don’t make anything. I don’t create anything that can be taken and sold by someone on the street or over the internet. I am in a service industry which is largely based on the work I do. There is not really an inventory of product being stored at the James Law Firm. Time is what I have to sell. That is, as long as I can get someone to buy it. Once it is gone, it is gone. There is not much resale value in time gone by.
One of the problems we have in America is we make less and less. Our people are more and more in the business of service. If we don’t service it, we probably sell it. We don’t make much when it comes right down to it. Not like we used to do. That kind of situation is enviable when you are rich, but what about when you are a little down on your luck and there is no one that wants to buy your services, and the only goods you can sell are the cheap goods you buy from people with lower production costs?
The knee jerk reaction is protectionism, but that is not a long term answer to anything. Add to our problems a Congress that is so steeped in partisanship and fear of losing elections that they are unable to do anything worthwhile for fear of losing their seat or possibly making the other party look good.
We have a party in power that controls the House, the Senate, and the Executive Branch. They should be able to do anything they want. Greatness takes risk taking. No one wants to step up and take a risk. The other party just says no. Sadly, their refusal to participate in any meaningful way is eroding the power that the party in power should be enjoying. It is not the snow storm that is causing deadlock in Washington.
Let’s hope that the thaw of the next week or so will be paralleled in the leadership of our country and let’s try to see if we can’t get this country back on track. It is ok to have differences, but to return to our unquestioned greatness we have to get along and work together. Our failure to recognize this simple truth will lead the country to almost certain collapse. It will take awhile; but then again, Rome did not fall overnight. We need to do this for our children; we need to do it for ourselves. That much is clear, even in the CHEAP SEATS!
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