Down Slope Poetry

Aug 12th, 2011

Pure art... even better, dare I say it... than Waits' version...

A Modest Proposal To Restore U.S. Economy

Jan 17th, 2011

by Stephanie Baselice

The once mighty US economy remains in deep and dangerous waters. Although the markets have largely recovered from the “Great Recession” the general public remains wary and depressed, which is potentially bad for business. It is also a political minefield. Unemployment floats around 10 % by official standards, closer to 20% if one includes those who have ceased looking for work. Despite modest job gains in 2010 at current rates employment growth will take 5 or 6 years to reach pre-recession unemployment levels of 5-6%. Indeed, it may be that the problem lies deeper and that many of the workers recently laid off during this difficult time were comparatively unproductive and will not need to be replaced. We may well shoulder a 10% unemployment rate far into the future. In any case, once high hopes for “change” have been dashed against the rocks of a deep and extended downturn. Inflammatory rhetoric from liberal elites and labor groups about the possibility of shifting economic focus to risky and untried ventures in “green jobs” puts the American way of life at risk. Quality of life measures rank America lower and lower, and despite relatively high worker productivity, our creative and technological edge is growing dull. Rising nations such as India and China will soon surpass us in critical areas such as inventing new products. Education and healthcare are thankfully still private enterprises, yet they consume increasingly large shares of the economic pie for most families. National solutions to these problems are out of the question, of course. Any reasonable person understands that such solutions must be too expensive and disruptive to the profits of current business leaders to even be considered. Yet recent pro-business political gains may well evaporate if the recovery does not soon produce sufficient job growth to avoid a broad based re-evaluation of the political and economic system.