Posted on 12/30/2008 3:48:47 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
President-elect Barack Obama has been formulating plans for the stimulus package likely to be enacted shortly after he takes office. It is reputed to be in the area of $800 billion to $1.2 trillion, and he originally proposed to create 2.5 million jobs.
More recently, however, he has adjusted his goal to be 3 to 3.5 million jobs because of analyses that show the probability the economy will lose 3.5 million jobs in all of 2009.
Yet this goal should be juxtaposed against the size of the growing Black unemployment rate, estimated to be 12 percent at present, which would be viewed as a crisis if it were a national figure.
It has always mystified me why government officials and economists consider this as “normal” with respect to Blacks. The truth is that it has always been a crisis, but neither Democratic nor Republican officials have cared enough to enact special measures targeted to this population of 40 million to help it achieve employment parity.
So my question is, who will get those jobs? More directly, since the Black unemployment rate could reach 20 percent by the end of next year, and they have had difficulty accessing jobs in “normal” times, I ask whether this fact will be taken into consideration in the Obama administration.
Every one talks about education as the remedy, but education is a very long-range strategy and is not guaranteed to bring about employment parity when racism still influences who gets a job; when employers can detect that an African American is at the other end of the application process.
Studies still show that whites with prison records and high school educations are able to secure employment in a greater measure than Blacks with college degrees or those with Black-sounding names. For Blacks to get those jobs, the Obama administration will need to vigorously enforce the laws against employment discrimination.
Second, the announced targets for job creation by Obama in areas such as infrastructure, health care, environment and others create some doubt that the available jobs will be distributed equitably. For example, infrastructure jobs – Hispanics are poised to consume them, having “crowded out” African-Americans and others, to use a concept of some economists, in trades such as construction, landscaping and other pertinent employment categories. Then, African Americans are no better poised in the health-care industry to obtain jobs that have quickly been appropriated by immigrants from many countries, from the Caribbean and Latin America to the Middle East.
Finally, in the environmental industry, the increase of jobs from 1990 to 2006 was just over 440,000, so with this sector of the economy targeted for growth, Blacks could obtain a significant number of jobs with adequate training.
All of this means that since states can deploy workers in “shovel-ready” jobs in the low-wage category rather quickly, there should be an acute sensitivity to the fierce racial/ethnic competition that exists.
Otherwise, since increased employment in other sectors will require training, what could enable Blacks to become more competitive is the creation of a more powerful job-training model that encompasses features of the old CETA (Comprehensive Education and Training Act) and the currently ineffective JPTA (Job Partnership Training Act).
It should enable states to provide the funding to a variety of service providers (high schools, community colleges, churches, small businesses, social service organizations etc.) to re-establish a priority on training the most disadvantaged low-income American citizens for higher-paying jobs.
Many people have asked “What’s next?” now that we have a Black president, and many of the answers have been abstract. However, coming down the pike is the largest amount of social and economic funding to be invested in moving the economy and the country forward we have seen in a long time.
If Blacks are not poised to take advantage of it, they will not only lose one of the most important economic opportunities in history, but also fail to provide our own answer to the question of what it means to have Barack Obama in the White House. His job is to open the doors, ours is to fight to open them wide enough so we can obtain the equal benefits of American citizenship. – (NNPA)
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Ron Walters is the director of the African American Leadership Center and Professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland College Park. His latest book is: “The Price of Racial Reconciliation” (University of Michigan Press).
It will be better for the economy if most of the money is stolen by Obama’s friends, because then it will be invested in some kind of productive assets. Or will go up their noses.
If millions of people are actually hired digging holes and filling in holes, then the money will just circulate and cause inflation.
At least most of them came here to provide for their families and/or get ahead in the world. The Asians and Indians are smart: They don’t usually work for someone else, instead, they start a business or buy one. Almost every motel in this country is Indian-owned, and now they’re buying the hotels.
it’s pretty simple - it’s self defeat for some
also, the acting like whitey thing must be a thing of the past
education is the key.
I read the NEW UPCOMING JOBS
are....
1. Eco Services Director
2. Pet Psychologist
3.Errand Consultant
Is this what Obama had in mind???
The white, male, middle class, blue collar workers he pandered to hopefully. LOL.
What a bunch of victimhood garbage. My husband hires for an IT department. He doesn't care if the employee is black or white, just if they can do the job...he has blacks, whites, and hispanics working in his department, he hired them because they were qualified and could do the job (some were hired even if they didn't meet the educational guidelines because they were extremely experienced and capable.)
Yup... Was reading one of Cesar Millan’s books the other day. He came here illegally and flat broke (the coyote charged him every cent he had on him) in 1990, and couldn’t speak a word of English. But he had this crazy dream about becoming a dog trainer in Hollywood. Look at him now: He has his own show and is worth millions, I’m sure.
That's 320 thousand to 480 thousand per job.
I predict Obama’s job creation program will be as successful has Hillary’s in NYC.
Generally that has been the history of most immigrants. Vietnamese, Cubans, Italians, Polish... all came in and made the opportunity work for them.
So why have the blacks generally had so many problems???????? And they are already here!!!!!!
If you don't reach out you will not get the ring.
You can only help those that want to help themselves.
Just pulled out my trusty calculator and found that:
$1T Spending / 1M Jobs = $1M / Job.
For what Obama is promising in the way of Jobs, he could just cut $1,000,000.00 (one million) dollar checks to each worker, let them retire, and save everyone the hassle of a whole make-work program.
“...Black unemployment rate, estimated to be 12 percent at present...”
aren’t Blacks also about 12% of the population?
seems like unemployment and crime rates in any racial group ought to be at or very near equal to racial demographics.....
Hey you’re right. He should give us all a piece of the pie and call it a day.
“education is the key.”
To what? To getting a government job? All around America it has been guts and work that gets it done.
Okay, 2.5M jobs; so that’s really $400,000 per job.
Still and all, I’ll take the check, thanks!
The same is true in reverse for whites. I was told by several interviewers back in the 70's and 80's that they wanted to hire me, BUT they needed to hire a minority.
Plenty of poor white folks voted for Obama while holding their noses. If he gives preferential treatment to poor black folks, they’ll walk away from the Democratic party en mass. I’m kind of lookin forward to hearing their wailing and gnashing of teeth should this happen.
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