COMMENTARY | President Barack Obama 's new jobs plan doesn't actual ly include many ideas for creating jobs. There are tax cuts for employers that hire new workers, but the richest 1 percent of Americans already hoard more than a third of the country's wealth, so it's unclear how giving them even more money is supposed to help. The only jobs that will be directly created by the plan are those of road construction workers.
What much of the plan consists of is measures to assist the long-term unemployed. It's not quite as progressive as the New Deal era's dramatic push for public works spending, the results of which are still with us today, but in many ways it's a start. Millions of Americans have been out of work for six months or longer and are competing with new college grads for what few positions there are.
So anything that eases the pain of being unemployed can only be a good thing ... right?
"It lessens the pain"
That's what Republican Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell of Virginia said on CNN about the Obama plan's extension of emergency unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless. And while it might sound like a ringing endorsement, he went on to explain how terrible it is to "promote benefits for people that are not working." As though the millions of America's jobless are that way by choice, and are getting fat off of their $160 a month food stamp allotment.
Saying more than he intended
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reveals the hidden prejudices behind this disdain for the unemployed: While the unemployment rate for white men and adult women hovers around 8 percent, the rate for Hispanics is 11.3 percent and for blacks it is 15.9 percent. Teenagers of all races face 25 percent unemployment, one of the highest rates faced by any group of job seekers.
So when people like McDonnell imply unemployed people are lazy, what they are really doing is expressing disdain for America's most vulnerable and disadvantaged groups: The poor, the young and ethnic minorities. More than that, they are actively hurting them. Because these are the groups that are most affected by condemnations of the unemployed, and the ones who have the most to lose if America adopts an "Every man for himself" attitude.
"The beatings will continue until morale improves"
That's the Dilbert-esque quote of unknown origin, that sums up bad management practice. It's also, apparently, McDonnell's plan for putting Americans back to work: Threatening them with hunger and homelessness if they can't find a job in an arbitrary number of weeks. In the meantime, our roads crumble and our infrastructure deteriorates, while ambitious projects like high-speed rail and green energy stall out and fizzle.
It's time to put America back to work. Obama's plan isn't perfect, but it's a start, and it takes care of those who can't find work. Any plan that doesn't include a provision for them is not even worth considering ... unless you particularly hate kids and black people.
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