PLEASE rec the following post to DU's front page:

[MannyGoldstein]

Krugman - Recession 'gratuitous' because if Congress created jobs program it 'would all be over'

It's our duty to let people know what we're really dealing with here!

[geckosfeet]

1. Note the economy in California. Very high unemployement yet they are beating

their budget problems.

on edit: not to say I don't agree with OP.

California Governor's budget has surprise: a surplus

California's economy melted down with the housing market, slashing the state's revenue, but it is finally on the mend. For years the state's leaders have tackled budget deficits with a combination of deep cuts and accounting gimmicks. The projected surplus is now the latest surprise.

Businesses are hiring again and voters in November approved temporary hikes to the state sales tax and income tax rates on wealthy taxpayers.

California's job growth tops the national average, unemployment has fallen to below double-digit levels for the first time in nearly four years and more money is expected to flow into state coffers from the voter-approved tax increases.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. That is due to higher taxes.

It will help create government jobs as well.

[JDPriestly]

10. I agree. That is the point of the higher taxes -- to create government jobs.

Even if the money is immediately used to pay off debts, it will ultimately create government jobs -- and we need to rehire laid-off teachers, for example.

But California is a state and the strategies available to it are limited.

The US is not limited by the need to borrow money. It can simply hire the unemployed for minimum wage in special programs and pull the entire economy up through public works projects. The rich do not want to see a reduction in the value of their cash. They could care less about high unemployment. That is why they want austerity. They are fools. We can see in Greece that a country in which so many people are unemployed and feel hopeless is in big trouble. Do wealthy Americans really think that they can hide from the inevitable social turmoil -- possibly even disease -- in their gated communities?

I don't think they can.

[rhett o rick]

20. The rich want to get as much gold from the goose as they can.

And if they arent careful and have a greed frenzy, the goose may die.

[geckosfeet]

19. Noted

[grahamhgreen]

6. Note California can not print money.

[geckosfeet]

18. Note the bolded text in the excerpt in my post.

[hedgehog]

2. We need to make this a mantra!

[20score]

3. Done!

[grahamhgreen]

5. Yes! Cut the big war budget and build wind farms and outfit everyones house with solar. And

while we're at it build some electric cars.

Beware the war hawks who use jobs as an excuse to increase the big war budget. War has a small multiplier effect, whereas energy production gets you cheap energy!

[ChisolmTrailDem]

9. And do it on a scale reminiscent of Roosevelt

The Civilian Conservation Corps, in it's day, "was a public work relief program that operated from 1933 to 1943 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men from relief families, ages 18-28. James McEntee was the head of the agency. A part of the New Deal of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, it provided unskilled manual labor jobs related to the conservation and development of natural resources in rural lands owned by federal, state and local governments. The CCC was designed to provide employment for young men in relief families who had difficulty finding jobs during the Great Depression..."

More... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_Conservation_Corps

This time it should put men and women to work with a focus on solar and wind energy production and delivery. Electric grids also need to be upgraded. Bridges also need repair/replaced.

Sigh...but what are the chances it will ever actually happen. I'm afraid it's a big fat ZERO.

[JDPriestly]

11. on a scale reminiscent of Eisenhower??? Did you mean FDR???

[ChisolmTrailDem]

12. Yes, I did. Corrected. I was also looking at the Interstate Highway

System as an example of the scale of the energy/infrastructure we need today.

[sendero]

16. My father worked in the CCC....

.. which he more-or-less affectionately referred to as the "tree army".

[patrice]

7. KICKING!

[WillyT]

8. HUGE K & R !!! - Thank You !!!

Done !!!

[99Forever]

13. K&R

[FreeBC]

14. K&R!!!

[idwiyo]

15. K&R

[cthulu2016]

17. Gratuitous? Don't you realize that the suffering (of others) builds national character?

Sure, we *could* have fixed the recession, but what message would we be sending our kids?

That life is easy? That things have "solutions"?

No siree. The suffering of poor kids is a necessary cautionary example for my own children, and a price that I am more than willing to have someone other than myself pay.

Yours in Christ,
Third-way Cthulu

[rhett o rick]

21. Remember Manny has a split personality and usually doesnt know whether he is coming

or going. We love you Manny. Time for his medication. No wait, time for my medication. "No olives this time. They are filling".

[limpyhobbler]

24. LOL

imagine, if only things had solutions

[BeHereNow]

22. Just added my "rec" Manny

Guess I need to go kick it too.
BHN

[limpyhobbler]

23. k/r

[840high]

25. k/r

[love_katz]

26. Kicking.

[abelenkpe]

27. K&R nt

[idwiyo]

28. Kick

[juajen]

29. K & R

I am very worried about the people who are unemployed who are over 30, some over 40 or 50 0r 60. The ones over 40 do not have much luck finding a good job, because of age discrimination.

Actually, I would like to know the statistics for length of time the young stay put in a job. I have a young relative that swapped jobs 5 times in one year, and still got hired above older people, who would be grateful for any job and would stay a much longer period of time. The government should provide incentives for hiring people over 50, as well as the long term unemployed.

[flamingdem]

30. Tell it! n/t

[samsingh]

31. done

[thesquanderer]

32. People are recommending this thread...

...instead of (or in addition to) recommending the thread the OP actually suggested REC'ing. It doesn't make sense to dec this thread... rec the other one, withe the descriptive headline and the actual relevant content!

[Overseas]

33. K&R. Yes please!