Ever since the decline of manufacturing jobs in the Reagan era and the increase of 17 million jobs in services and whatever, not to mention the much heralded 22 million jobs in the Clinton years, legitimate skepticism rears its head. It is not the numbers — let alone the number of lost jobs — that are open to question, but rather the quality of the jobs and that these numbers naturally flow out of population increases, particularly among legal and illegal immigrants. Perhaps it is no different from the immigrants of the 19th Century when subways, bridges, roads and tunnels were being built, except for the glaring omission of infrastructure work, which is at a standstill.
Some could argue that the Golden Arches, casinos, stadiums, and Taj Mahals are today’s infrastructure and that construction workers are doing well, except for the diggers and wheelbarrow armies. Moreover, the spinoff of these structures of affluence create millions of jobs for the those of the bottom link of the labor chain — hamburgers have to be wrapped, casinos have to be swept, concessions stands serviced, and beds made. Despite this being a practical fact of labor and life, it is hardly worth boasting about when a large share of the labor market is subsidized by earned income tax credit, food stamps, child care assistance, Medicaid, off the books employment, temp workers without benefits, escalating part-timers supplementing income — the last three of which distort employment figures.
Many small businesses — retail-service outlets, manufacturers, computer wizards, contractors, self-employed — like to take credit for being the mainstay of viable employment in the nation because of their brilliance and eighteen-hour management days, but most do not acknowledge the irresponsibility for allowing the government to subsidize those who wilfully underpay their workers. Yet all’s fair in war and business. It is the government in the end that is irresponsible for turning its back on the extremists among the capitalistic-bent flouting fair employment practices. The government, also, because it does not offer incentives and encouragement to business in rebuilding factories and modernizing the infrastructure, to meet the needs and potential of this new century, lets meaningful labor to fallow and thereby lessen the demand for skilled labor. It is no more reprehensible, however, than for the decades of CEOs downsizing and outsourcing our once inimitable productive capacity.
Currently, there is a net loss of jobs from a moderate recession, 9/11 disaster and the war in Iraq. Nevertheless there have been almost 2 million jobs now created, owing partly to reconstruction of the twin towers, the Pentagon , Iraq, but mostly from the increase in homeland security, which certainly should have been more. This is symbolic of what the government does in the way of actually creating jobs; most of the payroll springs from the Treasury Department’s borrowing and not what most would infer from individual investments. In spite of the growing deficits, and unconscionable tax cuts, the government is the only job maker in town, not only in government related employment but in spinoffs for the unskilled that contributed to the 2 million job increase for immigrants since 2000, but sadly, a decrease for the native born. Those from the commercial and ideological world, of course, would deny this.
Copyright © 2004 Richard R. Kennedy All rights reserved. Revised: October 28, 2004.
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