Less than sixty percent of population employed

Published 12:00 pm Friday, May 16, 2014

Less than 60% of the Population Employed and it has been at that level since March of 2009 with little change.  If you step back from the politics ands ask a few simple questions it would appear that this is a problem that can be fixed.  A healthy economy needs a few simple conditions to exist if, it is to expand and grow.  Our national economy is driven by energy.  Cheap energy is the most necessary single component required for our national economy to thrive.  Low cost energy is not the only requirement.

Energy supply and pricing must be stable.  Economic stability is effected by energy costs but it is also greatly affected by political and regulatory predictability and stability.  Government attempts to influence and control business has seldom proved to be successful and most frequently has been problematic.  The genesis of the recession we seem to be stuck in was government policies and activities that affected the credit and housing markets.  These were the high level activities that led to the collapse of our economy.  

There are other areas of business and industrial activity that have equally significant impact on economic activity that usually go unnoticed until you drive through a pot hole.  Our national infrastructure is in disrepair.  The neglect of roads, bridges, electrical facilities, and transportation infrastructure has a negative effect on our economy.  Some of these areas represent government bureaucrats favorite pork project activities.  When we are not funding the repair and upgrade of these areas it is a sure sign that funds are being syphoned off for other priorities that may negatively impact the economy.

If we wish to generate more jobs, we need to supply business and industry with an environment that encourages employment rather than social programs that reward those that won’t work.  Construction work is hard work.  It pays well.  Some of the infrastructure, highways, is directly driven by government spending but the majority of the infrastructure in our country, energy, rail, etc is limited by regulatory control.  We have seen the Federal government use every trick in the EPA book to block the XL pipe line.  The pipeline would not only create jobs during its construction, it would create more long term employment in the petroleum industry.  It would help reduce our dependance on foreign energy and would begin to stabilize both energy prices and supply.

Local employment has greatly benefited from recent improvements in the highway infrastructure.  The widening of I-20 and the placement of the median barriers has not only made I-20 safer, it has made St Clair County more attractive to business and industry.  Americans have changed their beliefs relating to industry and profit over the pas 20 years.  At one point in our history we took pride in American Industry.  We understood that industry provided employment.  We built roads, encouraged the provision of infrastructure that attracted industry.  Today, the construction of even a small, short stretch of local road is fraught with regulatory delays, restrictions and inflated costs.

We enjoy and recognize the benefit of wages and salary paid by industry and commercial enterprises to their employees in exchange for the labor they provide.  We all enjoy the benefits of employment, income, healthcare, retirement programs but, we have been educated to believe that all industry is predatory.  Driven by those beliefs we begrudge industry of the profits they make.  It takes profit to add jobs, expand markets, to grow or maintain an industry.  It takes profits to change processes, to make them cleaner, and more efficient.

If we want our economy to thrive, we must encourage our government officials create a national environment that encourages industrial activity. We must remove or simplify the regulatory processes that often causes problems by preventing need maintenance or upgrades from being made.  We need a tax structure that encourages American Companies, engaged in international activities, to bring the overseas earning home and invest them in projects at home.

Government has spent too much time messing up our economy for it to be fixed with just a few simple changes but it can be fixed if we will allow those that make products, provide services, and employee people the opportunity to succeed.   We need to drop the idea that to be for business is to be against labor.  We should adopt a concept of supporting productive employment.