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Thursday, August 16, 2012
New Mexico Needs Jobs and Leadership to Restore the American Dream
Following is an op-ed from Sam Bregman - Restore the Dream
What is Governor Martinez doing? Where are the jobs and where is the leadership she promised with the private sector and federal government to generate good paying, long term jobs? They’re not in Tampa, site of the Republican National Convention and a top destination for this Governor since she took office in January 2011. Now that the panic is over about whether she will be allowed to speak or not, maybe the priority can be finding and creating jobs. Maybe. What has she done to create one, single job? Absolutely nothing.
So far, the Governor’s agenda consists of bringing up divisive social issues, blaming our teachers for failing schools, placing incompetent, discredited political hacks in charge of government agencies and allowing her chief political consultant to run a shadow government that is obsessed with furthering her political ambitions, whatever the cost.
Meanwhile, the worst economic crisis in 80 years continues to destroy jobs as New Mexico working families struggle for their slice of the American dream. After 20 months in office, they expect strong leadership from their Governor, someone that will fight and work hard to create jobs. Sadly, the result is failed leadership, starting with the Governor and continuing with do nothing political appointees, while repeated excuses assigning blame, play like a scratched, broken record.
As a concerned citizen and proud New Mexican , I believe that state government can and must take the lead in promoting and encouraging job growth in the private sector as well as in government. We must have strong, committed leadership that reaches out to both parties and is willing to use every tool available to help New Mexicans.
I have traveled thousands of miles throughout New Mexico and listened to voices in communities large and small, young and old, Democrats and Republicans. No one cares about personal political agendas or how to tear down your opponent in the next election—they care about providing a home to their children, good schools, safe streets and holding on to the American dream. They look to the future and want their Governor to support them. Nothing else matters if you cannot provide economic security for your family.
Recently, the Republican National Committee sent out a press release quoting Governor Martinez:” …Americans want to work. They want to build their businesses, compete and succeed in order to create more jobs and a secure future for their families.”
Really? Could you start doing something that would create jobs and provide a secure future in the state that elected you Governor?
New Mexican working families are waiting for Governor Martinez, her political appointees and consultants to stand up, provide leadership and fight for jobs in New Mexico, instead of looking for opportunities to tear down yet another opponent in the next election.
Because hard work, a good job and hope for the future is the American dream. For New Mexico and the USA.
August 16, 2012 at 09:59 PM in Economy, Populism, Jobs, Susana Martinez, Unemployment | Permalink
Comments
Give em Hell Sam !
Posted by: FDR Democrat | Aug 17, 2012 3:06:01 PM
She's all for making money for her campaign donor cronies, who cares about jobs for "you people?"
Posted by: bg | Aug 17, 2012 3:42:32 PM
We don't need "jobs". We, as a society, require optimal efficient "function" as human beings.
There would be no employment problem if we were taking care of the needs of society and especially of each other at all stages of life in all our human conditions.
There would be no unemployment if society functioned in a sustainable cyclic way wasting nothing seeking fulfillment of each individual according to their capability and talents.
There would be no lack of work if we were doing what needs to be done to support each other physically, materially, socially, intellectually. We would have more time as we job- shared to alleviate the time poverty that is degenerating us a people.
We need a new paradigm rather than profit driven constant production of more stuff we don't need.
We need to ask ourselves what human beings require and how human beings need to live to promote optimum health, complexity of mentality and high culture.
The notion of a "better" life has to evolve beyond a good paycheck and spending money on stuff and transitory indulgences. Wanting more and more at all cost is as base as the lowly creatures that crawl along our baseboards.
Posted by: qofdisks | Aug 18, 2012 6:43:55 PM
30 years of tax breaks, where are the jobs, jobs, jobs we were promised?
Posted by: Ellen Wedum | Aug 19, 2012 8:08:52 AM
" There have been plenty of ideas to create jobs and get people employed. The problem is that nothing ever gets done with these ideas. There is always some personal interest, some lobbying campaign, some political agenda actively BLOCKADING social uplift in this country. Ideas are just a bunch of noise until they are given the forms of law, institution, and action. "
"Right now we have a system (or lack thereof) where a certain percentage of the population has become unemployable - on top of that "structural unemployment" that job creators prefer so competition will improve the quality of employees they do hire while lowering their wages. We have unemployed people who have no way to take care of themselves, but we are also withholding aid from them because we don't want them to become "dependent"."
" If the so-called Job Creators are saying there are not enough jobs available for average people, then the problem is really about distribution and provision, not about jobs per se. "
Posted by: qofdisks | Aug 20, 2012 10:55:27 AM
AND this comment which is typical.
Of course, that's one of the things driving uemployment: fewer public-sector jobs, and many who have been let go due to falling tax revenue.
I'll give a case in point: my old job as a traffic engineer working for the City of Chicago. I observed early on when I was hired in 1983 that you need a minimum of 6 people to deal with the traffic engineering, public information and complaints, and proper record-keeping in my section. Over the years, the City just let attrition reduce the ranks, with no new junior engineers for me to train to do my job, and replace me when I retire. We had 4 engineers before I retired, and now there are three. After next June, there will be two, to handle the 2904 signalized intersections within the City. Oh, and BTW, I was the oldest and most knowledgable, so they lost out on my expertise for training. Penny-wise, and pound-foolish, and having Rahmbo the DINO as Mayor ain't gonna help.
by JeffW on Sun Aug 19, 2012 at 06:04:57 PM PDT
and
The first step is obviously not to fire people. It never ceases to amaze me how half of DC can say with a straight face that starving local governments (ie, firing people) is the solution to unemployment.
But, more importantly, we need to rethink basic economic metrics for developed countries. The work week fell to 40 hours between the industrial revolution and world war II, since we no longer needed people to toil for >60 hours to produce what was needed to support the population. Today, we are going through another round of automation, as computers/robots are taking over; yet, the work week (for those who have full-time jobs) is slightly creeping up, and many on the right actually point to it as a matter of pride that workers in America work more hours than the rest of the industrialized world.
So, we end up with no work for those who are less trained and/or educated or older and less healthy resulting in less leisure time for the employed, while the proceeds of all the work are mostly accruing to those who trade paper but make nothing.
by sny on Mon Aug 20, 2012 at 07:23:26 AM PDT
and
"There are 435 members of Congress, the President of the United States, think-tanks, etc. Lots and lots of people have lots and lots of ideas about how to fix our problems- some good, some bad, some "meh" but nobody seems really committed to actually putting any of them them in place or even really debating anything anymore. Hardly anything gets debated about on the floor of the Senate anymore let alone voted on unless the Republicans agree with it. The only "thing" the current Congress has done has been to cut spending and try to shut government down along with trying to repeal most of what President Obama and a Democratic Congress managed to accomplish during 2009-2011. Most state legislatures have been "busy" with cutting spending, cutting taxes, eliminating worker protections, and making it harder for women to get abortions. Until/unless we actually get some people in office willing to start talking about things that REALLY matter to most people, as well as actually debating ideas and solutions and voting on them, I fear that nothing much will be achieved and that our country will sink further and further into its current stagnation. It is a sad and pitiful state of affairs for a country such as ours that is teeming with lots of bright, creative, and industrious people and whose previous generations made huge strides in the development of this country."
by Proud Liberal Dem on Mon Aug 20, 2012 at 07:51:18 AM PDT
from
https://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/08/19/1121919/-There-are-Plenty-of-Ideas-to-Fix-Unemployment-The-Problem-is-Nothing-Gets-Done
Posted by: qofdisks | Aug 20, 2012 11:19:11 AM
It is interesting to me that Susanna Martinez and the Republicans gave numerous tax breaks to the "job creators," claiming like always that these would allow these "job creators" to create jobs.
So where are all the jobs? We've lost jobs. Yet again the tax breaks for the corporate elite have not created any jobs at all and the media who all help push this tax cut agenda have nothing to say about the failure. In fact, I've noticed there is no longer any place to comment on any of the local media outlets websites.
Hey they got theirs once again so where are ours? Raise their taxes like Clinton did so we can balance our budgets and create jobs again. I'll stick with empirical evidence in this case and the only real proof of the way to improve our economy.
Posted by: S. E. Marshall | Aug 21, 2012 11:02:05 PM
