1. A full FICA suspension:

The suspension of FICA paid by employees restores spending which supports output and employment. The suspension of FICA paid by business helps keep costs down which in a competitive environment lowers prices for consumers.

2. $150 billion one time distribution by the federal govt to the states on a per capita basis to get them over the hump.

3. An $8/hr federally funded transition job for anyone willing and able to work to assist in the transition from unemployment to private sector employment.

“Call me an inflation hawk if you want. But when the fiscal drag is removed with the FICA suspension and funds for the states I see risk of what will be seen as ‘unwelcome inflation’ causing Congress to put on the brakes long before unemployment gets below 5% without the $8/hr transition job in place, even with the help of the FICA suspension in lowering costs for business.

It’s my take that in an expansion the ‘employed labor buffer stock’ created by the $8/hr job offer will prove a superior price anchor to the current practice of using the current unemployment based buffer stock as our price anchor.

The federal government caused this mess for allowing changing credit conditions to cause its resulting over taxation to unemploy a lot more people than the government wanted to employ. So now the corrective policy is to suspend the FICA taxes, give the states the one time assistance they need to get over the hump the federal government policy created, and provide the transition job to help get those people that federal policy is causing to be unemployed back into private sector employment in a more orderly, more ‘non inflationary’ manner.

I think this is the heart of the problem: people putting their narrow self-interest above everything else. Everyone loses by taking a win-lose attitude. The only way we can win is by taking a win-win attitude.

One aspect of that is expressed by MIT’s Thomas Kochan in an article from Harvard Magazine
( http://harvardmagazine.com/2012/09/the-workforce ):

If unions want to have a future in the United States, they need to be the champions of giving workers the training, skills, and opportunities to add value to their enterprise—and then be able to negotiate a fair sharing of the returns that they help to generate. That’s how labor unions could add considerable value and discipline management—in a way that works for the benefit of the firm as well as for the workforce.

But a larger issue is that the public does not support unions. In a series of posts in June, Doug Henwood explored this phenomenon after Walker’s victory in Wisconsin. (http://lbo-news.com/tag/unions/ ) If unions are to reverse their decline, they need to a complete overhaul. Some excerpts from Henwood:

“But the heavy emphasis on the contract and the workplace has led to a narrowing of vision, and to a perception among the 88% of the workforce that’s not unionized that unions don’t give a damn about them.”

“In other countries, unions are about more than contracts, and have done a lot better job fighting for broad public benefits, like pensions and health care. Our unions look too much like they’re fighting to defend their own private welfare states and not fighting to expand the public ones. They look like that because they all too often are.”

“Unions have to shift their focus from the workplace to the community at large, from private benefits enjoyed by a few to public benefits enjoyed by everyone, or they’re doomed.”

Answer: An abundance of workers willing to take even less. See Jared’s August 31 post on “Full Employment.” And as long as it is the policy of BOTH parties to keep it that way (guest workers and open borders), nothing will change.

Helping the electorate identify and support policy that strikes balance between competing interests is impossible so long as nobody recognizes (or worse, overtly rejects) the interests of their opponents. Open, constructive dialogue that serves initially to simply educate us is what we desperately need right now. Only from that will we even be able to agree on what our options are.

You know, like the stuff that Jared writes.

But that kind of copy is too functional, too pragmatic, too boring to sell ad space or clickthroughs. And those of us with the attention spans to study it don’t seem able to put it into practice or policy anyway.

We are doomed.

The end result has been the long erosion of Democratic party support from where it was the hegemonic party – the 1960′s – 1970′s – to its position today . The hegemonic party today is the Republican party – the Dems win only when the Republicans
screw up , because the Republicans represent neoliberal capitalism, the church that both parties worship.

So who is fighting for the workers ? Certainly neither major
American political party.

American workers for the same corporation – well, why beat a dead horse?

Solution to this contradiction: the firm’s workers are represented by a union in Germany, and they have scary-to-job-creators organizations like “workers’ councils.”

Less hours. Paid more. Sounds like something to anticipate, but only if you move out of this country to someplace like Germany or even Australia with its “dangerous” $15+ an hour minimum wage and no interest student loans.

Different laws, same company, different results. Blame the lawmakers, because companies will always act only in their self interest.

The U.S. press and the leadership of Democratic Party!

The U.S. press and the leadership of Democratic Party (not necessarily the rank-and-file) are fighting to bring us more workers!

They are fighting for more workers, because we don’t have enough workers to fill all the jobs.

What does labor want? “More!” said Samuel Gompers.

The Democratic Leadership and the Press are working to be sure that we always have “More!” workers. If we don’t, wages could rise! There might not be enough people to do every dirty job for the minimum wage. In fact, there might not be enough to pick all the crops in California for less than the minimum wage.

Oh God! Please help the Chamber of Commerce fill all the jobs at wages that Americans don’t want. How could it be wrong if both Nancy Pelosi and the Chamber of Commerce are united on the issue?

That is why Jerry Brown and the California State Legislature are fighting to keep our borders open to prevent a shortage of high school drop-outs! They are fighting for labor! More labor so that no job goes unfilled; Regardless of race, color or creed, or lack of health benefits, or bad pay, or no sick leave.

America needs more labor! The Washington Post, the NY Times, and the Huffington Post tell us so. They are fighting for more workers from more countries!