$200,000 investment / job x 10,000,000 jobs = $2 trillion investment needed

[FarCenter]

To put 10 million unemployed or underemployed workers back to work permanently requires investment to create new jobs.

Various businesses in various industries have a range of assets per employee to conduct their business. But $200,000 assets per employee is probably a good conservative number.

So putting 10 million workers to work would require at least $2 trillion of investment in viable, productive new businesses.

[hughee99]

1. If I recall correctly, the stimulus was about 40% of that

and didn't create anywhere near 4 million jobs. I think it's going to take a lot more than $2 trillion to put 10 million people back to work.

[Broderick]

2. 800 billion gave us

1 million to 2.9 million jobs. Difficult to track says the CBO. Using the low number it would take 8 trillion in your figures, and 3 trillion in stimulus using the high number of created jobs.


Have to remember the fatcats need their cut....

[FarCenter]

3. The majority of the stimulus was used to buy goods and services

It was not spent on long-term investments in new and expanded businesses.

Only the fraction of the stimulus that businesses retained as earnings was available for investment, hence the long term impact on job creation was small.

[Broderick]

4. So it didn't trickle down appropriately right?

We need a real "jobs" bill, not extensions of tax cuts, etc etc.

[lumberjack_jeff]

5. More supply-side dumbshittery.

The jobs won't exist until a consumer market exists for the products they produce.

In the absence of a market for the products, only a completely irrational person would invest *anything*, so it is pointless to talk about how much investment is required.

No market, no jobs.

Build roads, energy infrastructure and schools and the secondary jobs will appear in their wake.

[FarCenter]

6. Roads you can't afford to drive on; energy infrastructure you can't fuel; and schools you can't keep

open.

That is what you wind up with, plus a lot of debt.

I agree that markets for the new goods and services are essential. But investment in new, profitable businesses is key. Just stimulating consumption requires perhaps 5 to 10 times greater government expenditure per permanent job produced. Otherwise, it just creates temporary employment that has no underpinning of permanent business.

[lumberjack_jeff]

9. It's the only strategy which offers a way out.

It's economics 101. Private industry will not hire anyone to build shit when people aren't buying. There is no such thing as a new profitable business for which there are no customers.

It's not a chicken and egg conundrum. It's all about the egg, period.

The stimulus was too poorly targeted to get us over the hump. The 50% of the stimulus which went to the investor class was entirely wasted. Wealth is concentrated into the hands of people who have no reason to spend it.

Or, in the words of Keynes

the Treasury were to fill old bottles with banknotes, bury them at suitable depths in disused coalmines which are then filled up to the surface with town rubbish, and leave it to private enterprise on well-tried principles of laissez-faire to dig the notes up again (the right to do so being obtained, of course, by tendering for leases of the note-bearing territory), there need be no more unemployment and, with the help of the repercussions, the real income of the community, and its capital wealth also, would probably become a good deal greater than it actually is. It would, indeed, be more sensible to build houses and the like; but if there are political and practical difficulties in the way of this, the above would be better than nothing.

[Warren Stupidity]

7. Yup.

Unfortunately nobody in washington is really even trying to fix what's wrong. They are all just playing for the next election, just like the CEOs are all playing for the next quarter. Keep the poll numbers up and the stock prices high in the short term to keep the gravy train rolling.

We aren't building the sustainable energy infrastructure that we KNOW WE HAVE TO BUILD if we want to have a society in the near future that provides a decent lifestyle for its people. Instead our elites have decided to just ride this ship onto the shoals, looting everything worth looting while they do so. They are fucking criminals.

[OmahaBlueDog]

8. Some thoughts

1. I would challenge anyone to see if you can get someone employed for less than $200K.

2. I rarely watch "MTP." I watched yesterday. Thomas Friedman, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Maxine Waters, and 2 GOP strategists. The discussion revolved around his book "This Used to Be Us." Without getting into the merits or criticisms of the discussion, one thing struck me -- the breakdown of who makes up that 9.1% unemployment. It's obvious, but still striking -- if you are a dropout, or only have a HS diploma, you are 3x as likely to be unemployed as someone with a Bachelor's or better. That group makes up a huge chunk of our unemployed. What would happen if, using existing resources in our existing public and private schools, we offered cash community or state school scholarships of $10K to any dropout who will complete a GED, and cash bonuses of between $5-$20K for anyone in this group who will either complete a certificate/AA program (e.g. med tech, dental tech, CAD). I just don't think the "WPA" approach will work here. We've had a seismic shift in our economy, and our challenge now is to move people into skills that are in demand.

3. I don't think you have to have the government employ the whole 10 million. If you employed 6 million, they would spend (buy homes, cars, etc.) and probably allow the private sector to absorb much of the other 4 M.

[sam11111]

11. copy what works: Finland - Best in world in quality of life

Has a Progressive economy

Another such, Denmark, best in the world on "Happiness" survey

Keynes is the way out.

The Private Sector is moving to India, etc. Better profits due to hunger level wages for educated smart folks.

Stop looking to the P Sector
for jobs... The P S is leaving.

Look to co ops, gov and WPA.
We will either copy Finland or become India. (Pls see movie Slumdog Millionaire...he wins the money.. Doesn't earn it)

See my sig below.

[OmahaBlueDog]

13. I don't accept your choices

You're not going to be able to sell socialism to most Americans, but America is more than capable of reinventing it's middle class through re-educating them to work in today's jobs, rather than hoping against hope that the past reappears.

[BadgerKid]

12. One thing I haven't seen addressed

is the number of jobs generated by the military-industrial complex. For anyone to comment on: How does a country resorb former soldiers into an already weak economy with heightened unemployment?

My question suggests that part of the reason the wars have continued so long is to help keep the unemployment numbers lower. (Another part of the reason is, IMO, to keep money flowing to the MIC per se.)

[OmahaBlueDog]

14. That was a big part of what Truman faced after WWII

As a general rule, our economy has grown dramatically 5-10 years after the ends of major conflicts. You end up with large groups of men (and now women) who know how lead, know how to deal with risk and fear, and know how to work in teams. That's how the transcontinental railroad was built; that's how we went to the moon.

[rug]

10. Here's half of it.

http://costofwar.com/en/