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).
What did he say?
I intent to create or retain 3 million jobs!
What you have to understand, is that he is voting present.
He’s got no plan, no game, no substance. The sad thing is, the media will not call him on this bull shit!
my guess is t hat illegal aliens will be getting those jobs.
I'll tell you though....a Viet Namese I know wore the same work shoes for over 10 yrs...she sends money to her mother, her husbands' mother, to her brothers and sisters, and if you get a relative in college, its expected that you will support them very generously....
I admire immigrant values....
I have never heard of any government grants used to purchase a hotel or motel and I know the details of scores of purchases. Usually the pattern for an immigrant is to come and work for a relative or friend for four, five or six years to refine their english, learn the business and save a nestegg. They scrub toilets, sweep and mop, man the desk and make beds, thousands of beds. They live, uh, frugally and save every penny. Usually they live in cramped quarters that Americans wouldn't put up with.
When they have learned the business, they start looking for a cheap motel with a small down payment. Family members are expected to help with this down payment. The last one I saw (for a larger property) had family contributing from $500 to $20,000, maybe 20 checks in all. Once in, they work like dogs to pay off those debts. Payment comes first before anything. It is a very honor based system and few disappoint. As the debts come off they look for a better property and trade up or go for multiple properties. They are then expected to help other family members who are starting out.
The opportunities in the motel business are, and always have been, equally open to whites as well as the Indians. Few whites will sacrifice like the Indians day in and day out to own their own business.
Some of them around here were just arrested for selling tobacco products without a tax stamp (in other words bootlegged) & not paying taxes owed.
Been there. Done that. Didn’t even get an orange jumpsuit. I’m all for ‘em if they can get away with it. Looks like they didn’t.
They have already been discussing the projects that the county will ask to have completed with federal funds. They were told that the projects had to be shovel ready, meaning no studies, training, etc. These will be union jobs. If the minorities are not union workers, they will be made union workers.
The guidelines say that the choice of projects will not be political, but the Democrat mayor in Bellingham says otherwise. He seems to think that the Governor will pick projects that benefit her main supporters, not rural counties, unless of course the project is on an Indian reservation.
So you are for breaking the law and not paying taxes that everyone else is obligated to pay? They were collecting taxes from customers just not paying it themselves.
There is a huge underground economy and as government grows bigger and more oppressive it will grow, too. It doesn't bother me a bit. The other day I had my tires rotated at a little shop that does such things. While I was waiting I couldn't help but notice that cash went in one register and checks another. Checks got a receipt. If a cash customer asked for a receipt the money went from the cash drawer to the check drawer. I happen to know the young man's father and, from him, that the young man is pulling north of 80 grand. Obama ain't getting that guy's money. Good on him.
New math, right?
You know he talks about education being too long range and for immediate help they need training. Well guess what, you can’t train somebody who is borderline illiterate, and has a sense of entitlement and bad work ethic to boot. They keep putting the cart before the horse and it just isn’t going to work. Unless somebody comes out and says listen folks, if you want to succeed you have to buckle down and work hard, nothing will change.
“Don’t you know, the latest projections were that we would lose 9.6 million jobs, and we only lost 5.5, so actually, I over achieved in my goal to preserve 3.5 million jobs by .6 million.”
“Yes, Lord Obama. Thank you. Without you, we are nothing.”
“Good. Now go finish your reports before your papers have to be out the door.”
New math, right?
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Yep, and Obambi is going to need a doctorate in new math when he starts doing all those things he promised at Denver.
Thank you for the clarification and insight. I can appreciate sacrifice and hard work. I guess that there were rumors going around 15 years ago, claiming that our government gave the Indians seed money.
Thank you for the link. Actually I am currently trying to sell my farm. Then I am going to coast for a while, participating in the silent economic protest. It will be hard work, to be self sufficient and fly below the radar, but I’m up for the game.
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