Obama Says Private Sector Must Lead U.S. in Creating Jobs

[The Northerner]

June 11 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama said the private sector must take the lead in creating jobs as the as the economy recovers, with the government assisting by making sure workers have the necessary skills.

"Government is not, and should not be, the main engine of job-creation in this country," Obama said in his weekly address on the radio and Internet. "That's the role of the private sector."

Obama said the government can work as a partner with businesses to enhance training and education for the jobs that are available. With the nation's unemployment rate at 9.1 percent in May, up 0.1 percent from the previous month, the administration is focusing on measures that can encourage hiring.

On June 8 Obama visited a community college outside of Washington to highlight a program where students are being prepared for manufacturing jobs in a $2 billion government program to train about 500,000 workers over the next five years.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/06/10/bloomberg1376-LMLLUS1A1I4H01-3S8SHCLBMH49OQUH1AKFBCHJU1.DTL

[Autumn]

1. Training and education for the jobs that are available?

"Would you like fries with that?"

Easy.And that doesn't cost 2 billion dollars either.

[NC_Nurse]

2. what. ever.

[lumpy]

3. Obama is right. The president doesn't have the power to create

jobs. He is no dictator thank God.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

4. Above and beyond that

the Republicans are sure as hell never going to let him. Businesses are sitting on a pretty pile of cash. Maybe if they gave more people jobs, people would be able to buy their stuff again. :shrug:

[Buns_of_Fire]

13. But who will bell the cat?

Private sector "management" is beholden to almighty Wall Street. I admit, were I a CEO, the LAST thing I would do -- without some evidence of a market -- would be to increase staffing levels. Why on earth would I ramp up production to accommodate 10,000 units when there's not even the market for 1,000?

It gets more Chicken-or-the-Eggish every day...

[Proud Liberal Dem]

14. You sure got THAT right!

What are we to do? Why don't they take the risk that once more people have jobs (and income) that they will probably buy their products again? If there is a market for what they sell (and all these companies supposedly do market research, so they would know, right?), then why would be they be afraid to bet that people will come back if they get money? :shrug: People can't spend money they don't have if they don't have a job- or enough money to buy extra stuff?

[Better Believe It]

16. Ever hear of the WPA, CCC, public works and government funded infrastructure jobs?

[Bluebear]

31. Obama is not a dictator!!!!1

Thank God!!!1 :cry:

[inna]

33. lol - and thanks for the laugh. nt

[Bluebear]

30. "He is no dictator", does that ever get old for you folks? Ever hear of the New Deal?

[rsmith6621]

5. So What About Affordable Education Mr President????

....Hey President Obama....Are you aware that most states are raising tuition??? some as much as 30%...

[BOG PERSON]

6. "government ... should not be the main engine of job creation"

wow, he's saying it would be IMMORAL for government to take over where the private sector fails. i guess people can stop waiting for a public works program now!

[FreakinDJ]

7. Manufacturing Jobs? - better teach them to speak Chinese

[aquart]

8. Wrong again.

[eilen]

9. Major Failure on Economy

He's lucky there is no populist third party YET.

[libmom74]

24. YET being the operative word and also the

problem, if there were a populist third party we would probably see the return of campaign Obama.

[Shagbark Hickory]

10. At least save the disappointing comments for a monday. nt

[ej510]

11. Public works?

Oh never mind.

[Urban Prairie]

12. The so-called "private sector" has little incentive to create "jobs"

in the US, especially since the globally explosive expansion of the WWW and broadband internet.

They want "US" to lease, subscribe, and/or purchase their peasant slave-wage labor produced, off-shored and outsourced products and services, as long as it is "someone else" who employs "US".

A corporate capitalist CEO's wet dream is for his or her business(es) to maintain no actual "physical" presence in the US, other than perhaps regional warehouses whose inventories are continuously re-supplied and maintained through RFID-tagging technology, with all products being ordered online and untaxed by most, if not all 50 states.

Almost every single job, that is not nailed down here in the US by purely physical necessity, and can not (as yet) be automated, eliminated by improved technology, or performed by robotics, is now, or soon will be vulnerable to off-shoring and outsourcing, that is, unless it is a "job" holding an elected office. Too bad that we can't outsource or off-shore THEIR juicy, lifetime benny, vote themselves raises, state and federal government jobs,(yet).

[valerief]

15. They are. Just not in the U.S. nt

[inna]

37. lol, precisely.

And I mean, look at that asshole outsourcer in charge of Obama's job program, that alone should say it all.

I don't even understand how people put up with this crap.

[Rex]

17. Same old tired song and dance. Try something different!

Almost as much bullshit as the economy in 'recovery' mode. :eyes:

[Better Believe It]

18. Companies Using Tax Cuts to Spend on Equipment, Not Workers. "You don't have to train machines"

So this is what many companies are using so-called "job creation" capital investment tax breaks like bonus depreciation for. Not creating jobs, but destroying jobs! So more "job creating" corporate tax cuts, more de-regulation of business and more NAFTA type trade deals is President Obama's job creation strategy which won't create any meaningful and high paying jobs. Many of those jobs created in the past two years are really low paying barely minimum wage jobs with few or no benefits.BBI

Companies Spend on Equipment, Not Workers
By CATHERINE RAMPELL
June 9, 2011

Workers are getting more expensive while equipment is getting cheaper, and the combination is encouraging companies to spend on machines rather than people.

“I want to have as few people touching our products as possible,” said Dan Mishek, managing director of Vista Technologies in Vadnais Heights, Minn. “Everything should be as automated as it can be. We just can’t afford to compete with countries like China on labor costs, especially when workers are getting even more expensive.”

Two years into the recovery, hiring is still painfully slow. The economy is producing as much as it was before the downturn, but with seven million fewer jobs. Since the recovery began, businesses’ spending on employees has grown 2 percent as equipment and software spending has swelled 26 percent, according to the Commerce Department. A capital rebound that sharp and a labor rebound that slow have been recorded only once before — after the 1982 recession.

“You don’t have to train machines,” Mr. Mishek observes.

Read the full article at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/10/business/10capital.html?_r=2&ref=us

[BOG PERSON]

19. fun fact: when politicans say american labor is the most productive in the world

what they really mean is "american industry is the most heavily automated"

[meow mix]

20. how very "ayn randian"

yeah sure thats gonna happen. :rofl:

[kentuck]

22. I would think government might have a big role to play?

Government can vote to increase the minimum wage. Government can vote to lower the hours worked per week to increase employment.

Government can make regulations that are more employee-friendly and change the tax structure to help employees and give incentives to companies to hire more people.

Government can create jobs to fix our infrastructure and put people to work and help our country at the same time.

We cannot expect the "private sector" to do any of the above.

[unkachuck]

21. "Government is not, and should not be, the main engine of job-creation in this country,"

....then there won't be any job creation and you too can join the ranks of the unemployed....

[rurallib]

23. been feeling lately that we have Rockafellow Republicans

and Reagan (& Bushco) Republicans as our only choices at election time. Then when elected all the answers are republican proposals of some stripe.

READ ABOUT FDR, MR. PRESIDENT!

[MrSlayer]

25. So I guess a massive public works project is out of the question.

These problems can be solved so easily and they make it seem like rocket science. Of course the Republican house will never pass anything that benefits people but at least get them on record as being against the people.

[Better Believe It]

26. That hasn't even been considered by the administration and Congress

[lovuian]

27. No the Government needs to create JOBS like Roosevelt did

we are in a Depression the Private sector isn't doing anything...its a Depression

[mmonk]

28. We need an FDR.

[Fool Count]

29. Bwa-ha-ha.... It's like saying that fox should be responsible

for safety of chickens in the henhouse. Every job leaving the US for China or India is putting money
directly into their pockets. And we are now supposed to rely on their conscience to reverse that
profitable process? Is that all Obama has in way of economic policy? Pity the poor American workers then.

[inna]

36. "Pity the poor American workers" is right. nt

[Horse with no Name]

32. They aren't going to

for these reasons:

1. We are still giving them tax breaks.
2. They are making record profits.
3. The remaining employees are fearful to keep their jobs--therefore, they are a compliant workforce...easy to manipulate to do more for less and be afraid to even ask for a raise or complain about a lack of benefits because "they are lucky enough to have a job"
4. The can use the economy as an excuse to their consumer as to why they are operating understaffed.

Now, exactly WHERE is the motivation to create more jobs?

Perhaps if tax breaks had conditions they had to meet to receive them...then we could talk, but they were gifts--Obama was just the middleman.

[madfloridian]

34. That is absolutely disappointing to me.

He could have done so much. He has done so little to help the working class. We had all 3 branches for 2 years...and nothing.

[QC]

35. And once again Obama validates a key Republican meme.

He does that pretty much all the time, come to think of it.