Surely there must be a job for everyone

Jobs? Stimulus? For the life of me I cannot understand why we attempt to create jobs in phony trickle-down, roundabout ways. The idea that injecting borrowed dollars into the pockets of fat cats and big corporations will somehow create jobs is hogwash. Enough already! I’m tempted to employ some of the bad words I learned back in my basic training days. But that is not what I really wanted to talk about. It’s jobs! Here in America, where there is so much work to be done, surely there is a job for everyone.

There are enormous numbers of projects in the public and private sectors: roads, bridges, waterways, airports, education, communication, technology, research and yes, art and literature too. Our communities should be a showplace. Unemployment is cured by putting people to work. What is so hard to understand about that? If it can be done in the private sector, fine! But when the numbers are this big you simply can’t wait for Mom and Pop to hire another clerk. Are jobs the government’s responsibility? Well, do we have a national emergency?

Unemployment insurance is a safety net, a promise made that must be kept, but kept only for those who are ready, willing and able, and actively seeking work. It must never be a counterproductive career. Perhaps we should change the name and the concept to “employment insurance,” the guarantee of a job for every qualified person. Don’t ask me how. I’m working on that.

It has been said that a rising tide lifts all ships. Baloney. A rising tide doesn’t lift the ships stuck on the bottom. The way to lift them is to make them buoyant and give them something to do.

Joseph Russell Vannier

Hoffman Estates