Black America Needs an Economic Stimulus Program - Now, Not Later!
By Robert James Taylor
A news development which has not gotten nearly enough media or government attention over the past two months has been the soaring unemployment rate among African Americans. According to the Labor Department, Black joblessness stood at 15 percent in April and then “improved” insignificantly in May by falling to just 14.9 percent. These are jobless figures which appear to be approaching the Depression-era unemployment rates of the 1930s when roughly 25 percent of the adult population was looking for work and could not find it. The situation is made even worse by the manner in which the government calculates unemployment rates: You are only counted as unemployed if you are actually looking for work.
Those Blacks who have become frustrated and given-up the job search are not included in the unemployment figures. Neither are people who are working part-time but actually desire to work full time. In order to combat the crime producing, psychologically-demeaning and dysfunctional-family-creating unemployment epidemic, Black America needs to be specifically targeted with an economic stimulus program which creates both jobs and businesses, especially in our inner-city communities. When the automobile industry was in trouble, the government responded with billions of dollars specifically designed to revitalize that industry and make it more competitive. When the banking industry was shaken to its knees by the sub-prime mortgage crisis and the credit crunch, the government responded with billions of dollars specifically designed to rescue the nation’s banks.
However, with Black America in economic crisis, we are being told (even by the Obama administration) that specific aid to Blacks is wrong. Instead, we are told the government is working to revitalize the overall economy and as a result Black America will benefit. This sounds suspiciously close to President Ronald Reagan’s “trickle-down” economics of the 1980s. In practice, “trickle-down” promoted the absurd notion that you help the poor and the working classes by given the wealthy more money. The notion advanced the argument that the wealthy would eventually invest their extra dollars and produce jobs and rising incomes for the lower classes. No! If you actually desire to help Black America out of its economic crisis, invest billons of dollars directly in Black America - not in the form of give-away projects but in the form of targeted investments which create small businesses and jobs. If you are going to give billions to the automobile industry, have the companies build some of their new plants in inner-city areas.
I am not an economic determinist. I do not believe that money solves all problems. But it lays the best possible foundation for change. Every problem plaguing Black America today would either be eliminated or become less of a problem if we were a wealthier people. Wealth can only come from employment and business ownership. Black America, starting with inner-city areas, needs an economic stimulus program: At least $50 billion a year for the next 10 years. President Obama and the U.S. Congress, I hope you are listening.
[Robert Taylor welcomes responses to his commentaries. Email him with your thoughts on this and other subjects at TaylorMediaPrime@yahoo.com . Please include your name and city.]
A news development which has not gotten nearly enough media or government attention over the past two months has been the soaring unemployment rate among African Americans. According to the Labor Department, Black joblessness stood at 15 percent in April and then “improved” insignificantly in May by falling to just 14.9 percent. These are jobless figures which appear to be approaching the Depression-era unemployment rates of the 1930s when roughly 25 percent of the adult population was looking for work and could not find it. The situation is made even worse by the manner in which the government calculates unemployment rates: You are only counted as unemployed if you are actually looking for work.
Those Blacks who have become frustrated and given-up the job search are not included in the unemployment figures. Neither are people who are working part-time but actually desire to work full time. In order to combat the crime producing, psychologically-demeaning and dysfunctional-family-creating unemployment epidemic, Black America needs to be specifically targeted with an economic stimulus program which creates both jobs and businesses, especially in our inner-city communities. When the automobile industry was in trouble, the government responded with billions of dollars specifically designed to revitalize that industry and make it more competitive. When the banking industry was shaken to its knees by the sub-prime mortgage crisis and the credit crunch, the government responded with billions of dollars specifically designed to rescue the nation’s banks.
However, with Black America in economic crisis, we are being told (even by the Obama administration) that specific aid to Blacks is wrong. Instead, we are told the government is working to revitalize the overall economy and as a result Black America will benefit. This sounds suspiciously close to President Ronald Reagan’s “trickle-down” economics of the 1980s. In practice, “trickle-down” promoted the absurd notion that you help the poor and the working classes by given the wealthy more money. The notion advanced the argument that the wealthy would eventually invest their extra dollars and produce jobs and rising incomes for the lower classes. No! If you actually desire to help Black America out of its economic crisis, invest billons of dollars directly in Black America - not in the form of give-away projects but in the form of targeted investments which create small businesses and jobs. If you are going to give billions to the automobile industry, have the companies build some of their new plants in inner-city areas.
I am not an economic determinist. I do not believe that money solves all problems. But it lays the best possible foundation for change. Every problem plaguing Black America today would either be eliminated or become less of a problem if we were a wealthier people. Wealth can only come from employment and business ownership. Black America, starting with inner-city areas, needs an economic stimulus program: At least $50 billion a year for the next 10 years. President Obama and the U.S. Congress, I hope you are listening.
[Robert Taylor welcomes responses to his commentaries. Email him with your thoughts on this and other subjects at TaylorMediaPrime@yahoo.com . Please include your name and city.]
Good luck with this one. Not gonna happen neither should it. There are other groups who "deserve" it, too. Starting first and foremost w/the Native Americans. Per capita they are the poorest of the poor. And even IF the government were to spend $50 billion x10 years where would the money be after 11 years? A bunch of high-dollar rims on 10 speed bikes, gold teeth on babies, grandpas' pockets bulging w/viagara? No disrespect, but I've been Black all my life. I grew up in a Black lower-middle-class neighborhood and had all kinds of issues as a kid and teen, yet I don't feel the need for ANY KIND of special bailout. That would be an insult. Hard work and dedication to education are most important for folks of ANY color to achieve. The industries mentioned in the article were saved for a reason -- do you know how many employees' the collective sum total of all those banks, insurance companies and automakers employed? Do you realize how many companies, banks and families are/were insured y AIG? Did you really want to see that nightmare in America? Thousands upon thousands of people suddenly out of work; and even more having to shop for new insurance companies, deal with bank closures, etc.
Maybe I'm just too naive, but I thought we elected President Obama because we believed in his message of a new direction for our country -- NOT because we expected him to cut checks bearing the image of the Black fist on them!
Next January will mark the 400th anniversay of the first 20 slaves to step foot on this land. 400 Y-E-A-R-S. What we think we are owed ain't coming like we think it is -- get over it!!! We live in this counry with every ethnic group on the planet simultaneously -- how is he -- or any other president, for that matter -- going to single out "his people" for tax-payer funded government bailouts? Collectively, our spending habits equate to the eight largest in the WORLD -- our best bet is to bail each other out.