The American Jobs Act

[Spexxvet]

Originally Posted by BigV

Incumbent in what way?

Maybe "incumbent" wasn't the best choice of words. Reducing unemployment is something that must be accomplished, and the private sector is the only "entity" that can get it done.

In terms of business being a totally self-serving, greedy, short-term-bottom-line-driven institution, they should do it for themselves because they need consumers to buy their goods and services. Henry Ford paid his workers at a level that enabled them to afford one of the cars they they, themselves, had built. I grant you that, in the short term, high unemployment benefits the private sector (I'll bet you, UT, Wolf, and Classic would accept a job for considerably lower wages just to be employed, saving companies significant dollars) but looking at the big picture, there are fewer "things" being consumed when there is high unemployment.

Recently, "big business" has morphed into some kind of mutant social entity. It can donate to political candidates, and it advertises that it supports worthy causes. If business wants to show that it is a good citizen, it will put what's good for the nation ahead of what's good for itself, as the nation did for it with the stimulus packages and bail outs. At least for a little while.

Do I think this will happen? Probably not. Will our economic environment improve without this happening? Probably not.