Who's Out of Work?

The unemployment rate made a leap, and not the kind anyone likes, recently, going from 4.7 percent to 5.0 percent. So who's out of a job? Well, if you have kids in college, preparing to become professionals and enter what we are currently calling the middle-class, you're not going to like the answer, George.

According to a story in today's Washington Post, the largest growth in long term unemployment is among the middle-class:

Once concentrated among manufacturing workers and those with little work history, education or skills, long-term unemployment is growing most rapidly among white-collar and college-educated workers with long work experience, studies have found, making the problem difficult for policymakers to address even as it grows more urgent.

A Proposal That Unifies:

Okay, Barack, you are all about unifying the country, even to the extent of extolling the memory of Ronald Ray-gun, so here's an idea for you: The country needs to save energy. We need to promote high mileage automobiles. So try this idea out: Encourage people to buy high mileage automobiles by providing them with heavy tax incentives to do so. Not by taxing those who don't, but by granting significant tax cuts to those who do.

Doug Struck points out in today's Washington Post that

The cost of replacing anything, from a power plant to a coffee maker, is the first hurdle. Even if the logic of long-term savings makes it an economical move, individuals and companies often have no money for the initial replacement cost.

So make this proposal, Barack: Offer a significant tax cut to anyone who purchases a vehicle that gets, let's say, 40 or more miles to the gallon. Something like a deduction equivalent to the cost of purchasing the vehicle. If the car costs $10 thousand, then the purchaser could deduct that sum from his or her personal income taxes, either for one year or spread out over the estimated life expectancy of the vehicle. This is done all of the time for businesses, so why not allow individuals to do it as well. It could go a long way to improving the environment, cutting our reliance on foreign energy, and appeasing the Republicans who like nothing more than cutting taxes.

A year from today, Bush will either be out of office or he and his henchmen will have performed a coup: "One year ago today, the time for excuse-making has come to an end." — George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., January 2003.