STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Wednesday, 23 January 2013

[Demeter]

6. The Agenda for Obama's Second Term: Full Employment and Fighting Poverty

I REMAIN A SKEPTIC, AND WILL NEED TO BE CONVINCED OF THAT.

PLUS, I WOULD LIKE TO SEE THE RULE OF LAW RETURN: CLOSE GUANTANAMO, DISMANTLE DHS AND TSA, CANCEL FISA, REINSTATE HABEAS CORPUS, ETC.

AND BUST THE BANKSTERS.

http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/14063-the-agenda-for-obamas-second-term-full-employment-and-fighting-poverty

President Obama has been emphatic that his top priority for his second term is to defend the economic interests of the U.S. middle class. This is what he said in his inaugural address earlier today:

We believe that America’s prosperity must rest upon the broad shoulders of a rising middle class. We know that America thrives when every person can find independence and pride in their work; when the wages of honest labor liberate families from the brink of hardship. We are true to our creed when a little girl born into the bleakest poverty knows that she has the same chance to succeed as anybody else, because she is an American, she is free, and she is equal, not just in the eyes of God but also in our own.

It is hard to argue with these sentiments, as far as they go. But it would help a lot if Obama got a lot more specific very soon. Here are two specifics: get serious about fighting for 1) full employment and 2) a dramatic reduction in poverty. Both of these are eminently achievable over the next four years. They will also be wildly popular with the overwhelming majority of people, regardless of race, color, creed, sexual orientation or political affiliation.

Starting with unemployment, Obama’s goal should be to cut the official rate in half by the end of 2016, from today’s level of 7.8 percent to 3.9 percent—the unemployment rate last achieved in 2000. This would be the single most important thing he could do to support middle-class well-being in this country. It would mean that nearly 7 million people who cannot find work today would become newly employed. But we also must not forget that, at present, 6.2 percent of the labor force is either underemployed—working part-time because they can’t get full-time—or too discouraged to have looked for work within the past few weeks. Obama should cut that figure in half as well by the end of 2016, creating new opportunities for an additional 6 million people and their families. The goal should therefore be at least 13 million more decent jobs by the end of 2016. As I have discussed in previous posts as in Back to Full Employment, pushing the unemployment rate down aggressively will also give workers more bargaining power, which in turn will deliver higher wages and better working conditions.

Now on poverty reduction: As of the most recent 2011 figures, 15 percent of all U.S. residents—46 million people—were living below the official poverty line (with the official poverty line being thoroughly inadequate for measuring conditions of economic duress in this country, as the U.S. Census Bureau itself recognizes). Obama should also set as his goal to also cut the official poverty rate to at least the rate achieved in 2000, which was just above 11 percent. Cutting the poverty rate in this country from 15 to 11 percent as of 2016 would mean a significant improvement in the lives of 13 million people...