3rd From Sol

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Tag Archives: government spending

We Don’t Need More Service Jobs

14 Tuesday Mar 2017

Posted by Paul Kiser in Aging, Business, College, Education, Ethics, Generational, Government, Government Regulation, Higher Education, History, Management Practices, Politics, Pride, Public Image, Public Relations, Respect, Science, Space, Taxes, Technology, Travel, Universities, US History

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economy, government programs, government spending, high paying jobs, job creation, job growth, livable wages, Moon landing, NASA, presidential terms, Presidents, private business, service jobs, Space Program, technical jobs

Putting people on the Moon meant jobs on Earth

During President Lyndon Johnson’s second term (1965-1969,) the space program was booming. At almost four percent job growth, his administration exceeded any other presidential term since World War II, including President Jimmy Carter’s impressive 3.2% growth. These were high paying, skilled jobs that created a demand for workers that enticed many young people to choose engineering and scientific careers.

PRESIDENT PARTY TERM YR JOB GROWTH
Herbert Hoover R 1929–1933 -5.41%
Franklin Roosevelt D 1933–1937 4.97%
Franklin Roosevelt D 1937–1941 2.53%
Franklin Roosevelt D 1941–1945 5.00%
Roosevelt/Truman D 1945–1949 1.61%
Harry Truman D 1949–1953 2.93%
Dwight Eisenhower R 1953–1957 1.34%
Dwight Eisenhower R 1957–1961 0.87%
Kennedy/Johnson D 1961–1965 2.64%
Lyndon Johnson D 1965–1969 3.90%
Richard Nixon R 1969–1973 2.23%
Nixon/Ford R 1973–1977 1.68%
Jimmy Carter D 1977–1981 3.21%
Ronald Reagan R 1981–1985 1.47%
Ronald Reagan R 1985–1989 2.80%
George H. W. Bush R 1989–1993 0.45%
Bill Clinton D 1993–1997 2.85%
Bill Clinton D 1997–2001 2.33%
George W. Bush R 2001–2005 0.02%
George W. Bush R 2005–2009 0.24%
Barack Obama D 2009–2013 0.23%
Barack Obama D 2013–2017 1.85%

CHART 1.0 – Job growth during Presidential Terms (1929-2017) Growth over 2.5% is in green. (DATA credit: Wikipedia)

Service jobs were a byproduct of the main engine driving the boom in the rapid expansion of the space program. Service jobs did not offer the wages or the excitement of the space program, but they did provide employment for those who lacked motivation to qualify and/or seek out better paying, higher skilled jobs.

And then we landed on the Moon.

After we had achieved the primary objective, people who didn’t understand what a large government project means to employment, began questioning the space program. Over time the naysayers effectively killed the program, leaving private business to reinvent what NASA had accomplished in the 1960’s (landing on the Moon) and the 1980’s (a reusable rocket system.)

Today, we are trying to sustain and expand a service industry that lacks the main component of job growth, namely, a major public project that creates high paying and highly skilled jobs. Since NASA wound down its Space Shuttle program, job growth has flat-lined.

Private business does not exist to create jobs. It exists to put money in the pockets of the executives and owners of the business. Creating jobs cuts into profit. Paying higher wages cuts into profit. Private business is never going to create significant job growth, nor improve wages and benefits for the worker.

If we want job growth and livable wages, it is the government that will do it, not private business.

The 2018 Recession

06 Monday Mar 2017

Posted by Paul Kiser in Aging, Ethics, Generational, Government, Government Regulation, History, Politics, racism, Taxes, US History

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2018, cutting taxes, Donald Trump, economy, government revenue, government spending, military spending, President, Recession, recession of 2018, United States

Some people seem to believe that recessions are unpredictable. After all, if we could predict them, why would we let them happen? But recessions are predictable. They follow economic policies that are near-sighted. Policies that use deception to sell them to the citizens. Recessions happen because you can fool some of the people all of the time.

Recession:  The Shadow That Follows Republican Leadership

Republicans, back on top, recession to follow

Republicans, back on top, recession to follow

Republicans and recessions are inseparable. This was true in the 1980’s after Ronald Reagan made massive tax cuts for the wealthiest, while gutting domestic programs. President George Bush (41st) averted a recession when Democrats in Congress forced him to restore government revenues and increase government spending. The 2001 recession came after Republicans forced Bill Clinton to accept tax cuts and dismantle domestic programs after they took control of Congress. George Bush (43rd) used tax and domestic program cuts, along with massive military spending, and stripped down oversight of banking, to lead us into the Great Recession.

The pattern is simple. Republicans cut taxes, primarily for the extremely rich, and cut spending on domestic programs, taking away jobs and money from the economy. Minor tax relief is short-lived and is countered by an economy that is collapsing.

In addition to gutting the country’s economic foundation, Republicans favorite vice is to pour money into the military, which creates spending in small geographic areas, but it doesn’t support the broader sections of the peaceful economy. This type of spending for destruction fails to build lasting infrastructure that promotes the future economy, and creates a flow of government revenue for expenses outside of the United States to finance bases, logistics, and support troops. This money leaves our economy and doesn’t flow back into it.

donald-trump

The face of the economic failure

Trump’s Plan To Destroy the Economy
Government spending is the fuel of the U.S. economy. Specifically, government domestic spending. Military spending is usually burdened with unethical practices of the private military industry that tend to overcharge and under perform.

Donald Trump’s plan is to combine the economic errors of past Republican fiascoes and leave a middle class with low paying service jobs. Spending in the military is only effective if the United States is at war, so it is likely that Trump’s aggressive war of words with the rest of the world is designed to generate violent acts that can be manipulated into an air and ground war.

The result of Trump’s revival of failed Republican economic policies will bring on a recession in 2018, that may last for years.

Government Domestic Spending:  Real Jobs, Good Jobs
Growth in our economy has one common denominator:  Government domestic spending. Money spent by the government pays for both public and private sector jobs. Spending on programs that create new infrastructure and new technologies have the lasting effect on our economy. Spending on dams and hydroelectric programs, highways, and the space program all infused money and technological advances that moved our country into the economic leadership role that it has held for over a century.

When government fails to invest in internal programs it empties the pipeline of money that flows through the economy and that prevents money flowing back to the government, choking off the recharge of tax revenue that keeps the economy going.

Who’s Not Paying?
We are in a wealth crisis. As of 2012, the wealthiest ten percent (10%) of the United States own just under eighty percent (80%) of the wealth. The distribution of wealth in other affluent countries in 2012, showed that the top ten percent (10%) owned fifty to sixty percent (50-60%) of their country’s wealth.

Since Ronald Reagan, Republicans have successfully sacrificed the U.S. economy to make the wealthy, wealthier. Trump plans to put those efforts on steroids as he leads us to a recession that may resemble the Great Recession.

Can It Be Avoided?
No. The election of Donald Trump proved that there is no popular will to identify the problems caused by Republican economic self-pleasuring, and change course to put our country back toward a healthy economy. The best we can do is brace for impact and hope that our least educated citizens will finally see the consistent failure of Republican leadership. 

What America Must Do: Step 4 – Balanced Budget By 2015, Debt under 50% of GDP by 2020

03 Saturday Nov 2012

Posted by Paul Kiser in Aging, Ethics, Generational, Government, Health, Honor, Opinion, Politics, Respect, Taxes

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Alan Simpson, Erskine Bowles, fair taxation, federal budget, federal debt, federal deficit, government revenue, government spending, What America Must Do

The family budget is NOT like the Federal budget

Anyone who compares the federal budget to a family budget simply doesn’t understand economics.

A family budget is ruled by how much revenue the family makes, and/or by credit worthiness of the wage earners. Families operate under a micro economic system that is finite. Still, if a family buys their house they may exceed their annual Gross Family Income (GFI) by over 500% when they sign for a loan that will eventually cost them $300,000 or more. 

The federal budget is a dynamic machine that powers not only federal spending, but it also impacts unemployment and the general health of America’s economy. The federal budget usually doesn’t exceed the Gross Domestic Product (GDP;) however, in times of economic crisis the Federal Debt has exceeded GDP (see chart) for short periods.

The US Federal Debt compared to US GDP

The Federal Debt is determined by revenue (federal taxes, fees, and repayments) and by expenses or spending. When more people are employed they pay more taxes on the earned income therefore the federal revenue increases and the Federal Debt falls. When the unemployment increases federal revenue decreases and Federal Debt increases because fewer people are paying taxes on earned income.

George W. Bush cut income taxes and drastically reduced federal revenue. He then increased federal spending and suddenly our Federal Debt began to balloon. In addition, federal entitlement programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security are approaching a point that we have more people receiving benefits than they are funded.

There are many ways to solve the Federal Debt over a period of time, but increased federal revenue (see: What America Must Do: Step 3) is necessary if we have any hope of maintaining the quality of life that we expect in the United States. Smaller government is not the answer, but will actually deepen our economic problems. A bigger government comes with its own problems.

Smaller government means smaller economy and higher unemployment in both the public and private sectors. Bigger government means a bigger economy and lower unemployment, but it also can drive up inflation. A balance between the two is needed, but for years we have downsized the government and that has killed America’s recovery from the 2007-09 Recession.

Since everyday increases the Federal Debt, conservatives and liberals must come to a solid compromise to balance the federal budget soon.  A target date for a balanced budget by 2015, should be possible through bipartisan cooperation; however, conservative extremists have no intention of bipartisanship, which is why they must be removed from the discussion (see: What America Must Do – Step 1.)

The other challenge is to bring the Federal Debt down under 50% of GDP. That can be accomplished by addressing some of the looming problems of the federal entitlement programs; however, a ‘dump and run’ strategy, where the federal government divides the current money up and dumps the programs on the individual states is a stupid solution. Federal government programs tend to be very efficiently administered. Dumping the federal administration of these programs in order to create 50 new State bureaucracies is a sure way to put most Americans in desperate poverty as State programs fail under the weight of the cost or States simply refuse to maintain the programs.

Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson. Two of the smartest people in the room when it comes to solving the Federal Debt issue

With relative minor adjustments federally managed entitlement programs  can be maintained far into the future, and if conservatives and liberals build on work done by the Bowles-Simpson Commission the Federal Debt can be reduced  below 50% by 2020. 

If there is one issue that will safeguard the future of our children, it is the bipartisan work to resolve the Federal Debt.

Links to:

What America Must Do:  Step 1 – Silence the Wackos in Politics
What America Must Do:  Step 2 – An Extreme Makeover of Government at All Levels
What America Must Do:  Step 3 – Restore Government Revenue and Fair Taxation
What America Must Do:  Step 5 – Restart a Federally Run Space Program
What America Must Do:  Step 6 – Reinvent Higher Education

Other Pages of This Blog

  • About Paul Kiser
  • Common Core: Are You a Good Switch or a Bad Switch?
  • Familius Interruptus: Lessons of a DNA Shocker
  • Moffat County, Colorado: The Story of Two Families
  • Rules on Comments
  • Six Things The United States Must Do
  • Why We Are Here: A 65-Year Historical Perspective of the United States

Paul’s Recent Blogs

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