Make no
mistake about this: Politics and employment are inseparable kissing cousins.
There is not a single politician—black or white, left or right—who will
campaign for public office without promising more jobs. Likewise, jobseekers
habitually fall for those promises. Whoever
said you can’t fool all the people all the time? —Repeatedly no less!
Can the
national government solve the employment problem? The answer to that question
is not as clear-cut as many would have you believe. The surface-level response
is yes, but the ‘yes’ contains
qualifiers. Those qualifiers include corporate
political considerations.
Let us
use realistic, albeit hypothetical situations. The nation could use a
high-speed rail network and massive solar energy conversion projects. Combined,
these undertakings on a national scale could easily generate 5-to-7 million new
opportunities. They would also trickle down and goose thousands of local
economies.
Great
ideas, correct! Local governments would love the extra tax-dollars generated,
and the local communities affected could rehire laid off teachers and police.
Johnny and Suzie now have more money to spend (or save), so those extra dollars have a place to go. As those
dollars rotate their way through the economy, the ripple effect kicks in.
Who on
God’s green and blue planet would be against that type of prosperity? Now
there’s the rub! How about every nationally elected politician for starters.
Here is where the corporate politics enters the equation.
If the
plans call for building anything that might stretch from New York City to Los
Angeles, every political figure will have a say in what goes where. They will
also want to know which of their constituents benefit. (As a politician, you have to keep in mind where your next campaign
contributions will come from.)
While
job-seeking votes become distracted by all the hoopla, media clatter and
political wrangling in the foreground, behind the curtain benefactors are
making the critical decisions. These include the large corporations who stand
to benefit politically, and to a lesser
extent financially.
Once a
corporation graduates into being too large to fail, financial considerations
become less important. Control over the decision-making process is what counts.
Can we (the corporate giants) import
cheaper labor to perform the engineering work? Will we be granted unfettered
access to dwindling public resources? Do we have sufficient political clout in
our pockets that will protect Corporate America’s best interests?
The
answers to those unasked questions will determine if major projects move
forward, or stall in the back halls of Congress. When you control Congress, you
control jobs! At this juncture, if Corporate American does not want it to
happen, major work projects amount to rotting dead fish bobbing in the water.
If you
are in doubt as to how your congressional officeholder will vote on creating
jobs, just peek into who is bankrolling his or her political employment. Don’t
rely on what they tell you. Real politicians are bilingual and fluent in speaking
campaign lingo.
Copyrighted ©
2013 by Robert James