Tim Ajmani
The Corsair
In October’s issue of The Corsair, I talked about how unemployment is one of the biggest issues not only in the United States, but the rest of the world as well. The unemployment rate is rising day-by-day and something needs to be done to halt it.
The last time the American (for the matter, the rest of the world too) economy and unemployment rate was in this big of a hole was the “Great Depression” back in the latter stages of the “Rolling Twenties.”
The world fought out of its depression and after the horrific events of World War II, the international economy slowly came back.
How did the unemployment rate and economy come back last time? One of the biggest factors in the United States’ attempt to climb out of the depression was the “New Deal,” put into effect by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Essentially, the “New Deal” was a gigantic economic stimulus package that created new jobs with projects like the building of the Hoover Dam and enforcement of policies like the Tennessee Valley Authority and Agricultural Adjustment Acts (both created in 1933).
Our current president, Barak Obama, has tried to implement some changes in economic policy, much like Roosevelt did.
When Obama took office, he knew that he was walking into a difficult situation. Obama outlined a $775 billion economic stimulus plan days before he took the position of President. According to the outline of the plan, the unemployment rate would improve by the creation of millions of more jobs.
Obviously, the implementation of the plan has gone nowhere close to the American public’s expectations. In modern society today, one of the biggest flaws is that we expect results right now. Many news shows on television spend half the time criticizing Obama’s attempts to fix the economy. Regardless of who took office back in 2009, fixing the economy and unemployment rate weren’t going to happen overnight.
If I were to go out and ask someone how they would improve this country’s unemployment rate, I would get the predictable answer “by creating more jobs.” There are several ways that I believe could accomplish this. The government could reduce the amount of obstacles, like taxes and regulations, to help promote and then sustain job growth.
Additionally, the government could invest money in relatively new industries, like nuclear power, and place more emphasis on expanding them, which then creates the potential for more jobs.
Anything done to reduce unemployment rate has its risks. Today, it’s probably not realistic to expect Obama to come up with something like a “New Deal.” There is too much disagreement within the Senate and the House to get a project that big accomplished.
Perhaps the United States should look outside of its borders for potential solutions.
Regardless of what happens, something has to be done soon. Our job as a nation is to ensure a brighter future for our future descendants. Reducing the unemployment rate effectively would be a good start.