Obama Names Chenault, Doerr, Trumka to Council on Jobs, Competitiveness

[MineralMan]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-23/obama-names-chenault-doerr-trumka-to-council-on-jobs-competitiveness.html

"President Barack Obama named representatives from business and labor to his Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, including Kenneth Chenault, chief executive officer of American Express Co., Richard D. Parsons, chairman of CitiGroup Inc., and Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO."

The appointees also include other business and labor leaders, such as Joseph T. Hansen, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, as well as Monica C. Lozano, publisher and chief executive of La Opinion, the U.S.’s largest Spanish newspaper.

A complete list of appointees can be seen at:

http://www.nationaljournal.com/whitehouse/obama-names-facebook-s-sandberg-amex-s-chenault-to-jobs-panel-20110223

Sounds like a group with varied experience and expertise.

[Newest Reality]

1. Competitiveness is a snowjob

to me. In a general sense, are we to expect multinational corporations to compete with ... themselves?

We are already productive to a maximum here and companies are profiting immensely while proving that they don't need American workers, and ... gasp! ... even American consumers consuming mass quantities. I can only assume that competitive is a euphemism for more work at less pay with less, or no, benefits for more workers. How else would the workers for the Corporate takeover here compete with the workers for the corporate takeover there?

I'm highly suspicious, considering the current political and economic climate, that the government is now going for the boondoggles, in place of substantial efforts to reverse the current trends.

So, unless we see something other than rhetoric, committees, panels and more appointments, (with the revolving door between big business and government) it seems that we will need a Newspeak dictionary to translate the words being thrown at us in place of action.

Perhaps I am too biased when I hear competitiveness and equate it with leveling the playing field for even more exploitation, profit and power for the big winners in all this, big corporations and the governments they are custom-making for their takeover and rule.

[MineralMan]

4. Government runs on things like this. You get a bunch of people

in a room and they talk about stuff, then write something. It's standard practice in DC. When you mix people with different issues and priorities, as in this group, you get all sorts of things being discussed. None of these groups have any particular clout, but they provide information.

[SidDithers]

2. K&R...nt

Sid

[Uzybone]

3. looks like a well balanced board

[MineralMan]

5. Well, there are certainly people with different perspectives on it.

If you're going to deal with business, banking, labor, and other issues, you have to have people with knowledge, experience, and expertise in those areas. I'm not sure exactly what the goal here is, but it's always good to have people with different perspectives talking to each other. Most often, what comes from these things is just information the administration can weigh.