Starbucks CEO: Washington fails on job creation

[cal04]

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/02/19/starbucks-ceo-washington-fails-on-job-creation/

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz on Sunday blamed Washington for the country’s sluggish economic growth, saying lawmakers are more focused on politics than policy.

“The fact that we're arguing constantly, day in and day out, about ideology as our partisanship and everyone in Washington is more concerned about re-election than the core issues of the country, there's something significantly wrong,” he said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

(snip)
His company is now spearheading its own employment program, raising funds for a campaign called “Create Jobs for USA” that distributes loans to small businesses.

“It's not a Republican or a Democratic problem,” Schultz said, referring to the economy. “It's a problem in the fact that we are not gaining access to the leadership and the results that we need.”

[mmonk]

1. His idea is a good one.

[JHB]

14. Don't we already have businesses to make loans? What are they called again?

Danks? Fanks? Something like that, if I recall correctly.

Did the CEO address why these businesses are not doing the thing they are allegedly in business to do before he focused on criticizing Washington?

[Kookaburra]

2. He's right in that we're all in this drifting boat,

regardless of our political leanings, but as I see it (and yes, I am biased), obstructionist republicans are responsible for a lot of the problems. They've decided they will not get along and will not cooperate -- even if it ruins their constituents.

[southernyankeebelle]

3. Well all we hear from the republican party is Washington doesn't create jobs, it is the private

sector. So go ahead a create jobs Starbucks.

[Skinner]

4. This annoys me.

He says that Washington needs to focus on job creation.

He says both parties are failing at creating jobs.

But he does not explain what Washington needs to do to create jobs. (At least this article does not give any indication that he provided any solution himself.)

This is just like his "don't donate to politicians" proposal he's been pushing. It panders to people's hatred of politicians, and their cynicism about politics. But it does nothing to help people understand the problems our country faces, or what can/should be done about them.

It is cynicism of the worst kind, wrapped up as virtue.

This guy is worse than the politicians he criticicizes.

[Zalatix]

7. Yes but at least he is TAKING ACTION to create jobs.

Time will tell if his “Create Jobs for USA” initiative actually works as advertised.

[JHB]

11. No, he's not taking action

The donations are collected by purchasing some labeled trinket at a Starbucks. How much actually goes to job creation is not apparent, and one wonders why he doesn't make dircect investments.

It's mostly a concern-branding exercise

[cliffordu]

13. That's right...

I know someone who was one of the original investors in Starbucks....

She's been pissed for the last several years because STARBUCKS can't create jobs.

[B Calm]

5. I thank Obama everyday for saving my job.

I was laid off from a company that manufactures automobile bumpers for Detroit. Obama came out with the cash for clunkers program and loaned money to Chevrolet and Chrysler and I have been busy ever since.

[TBF]

6. Warren Buffett actually gets it - this dude does not (or simply wants to obscure the facts)

The main issue in Washington right now, the key road block, is that republicans are determined to keep the government from raising taxes, even on our wealthiest individuals (which would include Mr. Schultz with his net worth of over three-quarters of a billion dollars). Getting some of that hoarded money out of the Caymans and into the economy might get things moving again.

[JHB]

8. Here's a sure way for him to create jobs...

Hire people. Pay them more. Spin off a lot of your shops (and not just the most marginal ones) as independent businesses, so that more of the money they make stays with them and and is not redistributed to you and your shareholders.

If you want to raise funds, do it to promote the view that the highest business virtue is something other than Wall Street's definition of "efficiency". The efficiency with which wealth can be vacuumed upward as much as possible as fast as possible as high as possible means there's nothing available farther down the scale to create demand.

[taught_me_patience]

9. If the government started really creating jobs

this ass would probably cry "SOCIALISM"!

[DefenseLawyer]

10. An army of baristas is not really the kind of job creation we need.

There's nothing wrong with small business loans and all that, but we need secure, long term, high paying jobs in technology and manufacturing. That comes from fixing our trade policy to stop forcing American workers to compete with 3rd world wages, not building more coffee shops.

[lumberjack_jeff]

12. His business model depends on high income customers.

Arguably "high income and bad at math", but I digress.