Economy Recovers for Corporate America, Not for Everyday Americans

Economy Recovers for Corporate America,

Not for Everyday Americans

CNN’s Fareed Zakaria reports there’s a tale of two economies in America, where the haves are big business and the have nots are the unemployed and average American worker. Corporate America has rebounded from the nation’s financial crisis while the jobless rate continues to grow. Zakaria offers a five-step plan to rescue America’s workers:

1. Revitalize manufacturing in this country. Germany offers a powerful example of how to do this. They have managed to maintain high-end manufacturing in their country.

2. Focus on retraining workers. We have a generation of people whose skills are not going to provide them with employment in the current global economy.

3. Focus on the growth industries like entertainment, healthcare and tourism. One of the simplest things to do in life is double down on things that are succeeding.

4. Promote small business. Small business creates most of the new jobs in this country. The single biggest thing the U.S. government could do to help small businesses is allow more skilled immigrants into the country.

We train the world’s best and brightest - often at public expense since they go to state universities or they get grants from the U.S. government - and then just at the point at which they’re about to start filing patents, making inventions, creating jobs and paying taxes, we kick them out of the country. It’s an incredibly counterproductive policy.

5. Invest in infrastructure today. The crisis is now and we know that a large number of unemployed people in America come out of the construction and housing industry. We also know we have a huge crisis in infrastructure. We have bridges falling down, highways that need repair and airports that need building. We’ve got to come up with some way to finance infrastructure that will allow us to employ hundreds of thousands, if not millions of American workers.

There are ways to do this that are not as costly to the public. We can develop infrastructure banks and forge public-private partnerships. America is one of the few countries in the world that doesn’t allow the private sector to participate in building and financing public infrastructure. Why shouldn’t we open it up so that we can get the capital we need, which will in turn create more jobs?

In short, we need to do all of these things because America faces a huge structural problem – a jobless recovery – and no single action will be enough to help American workers recover and prosper.

Highlighted Clip for Thursday, May 19, 2011:

"A tale of two economies: How to save the American worker"

By: Fareed Zakaria

 I have been thinking a lot about America's economy and American jobs lately, and have an essay on the subject in this week’s TIME Magazine. As we emerge from the financial crisis, we are witnessing the extraordinary tale of two economies.