Capitalism is as much of a part of American culture as baseball or apple pie.

However, just because capitalism is what paves our streets with opportunity does not mean we should be ignorant to its disadvantages.

While corporate greed led us into a recession, capitalism has seemly been quick to pull us out.
Prompted by the majority of bailout recipients paying back their debt to the government, and the GDP rising by 3 percent in the third quarter, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said, “From a technical perspective, the recession is very likely over,” in the Oct. 27 New York Times article, “Gov’t May Say Recession Over but Not Job Losses.”

Nevertheless, with the Oct. 2 New York Times article, “Jobs Report Highlights Shaky U.S. Recovery” reporting that the national unemployment rate is now at 9.8 percent, Bernanke’s perspective does not agree with the sentiment of the majority of Americans.

In fact, what these statistics show is that prosperity of business is not as closely connected with the prosperity of the public as originally thought.

Corporate downsizing was the main agent of greed that has led us to where we are today.
Starting in the ’90s, business began outsourcing production work and initiated merges to downsize their white collar workforce.

This in return left more people out of work, so those people had less money to spend and the demand for products fell, which resulted in more downsizing.

The recession has resulted in corporations becoming leaner.

No longer does business have to insure a prosperous public to maintain a profit, for their market has expanded globally.

And if that is what it takes for American corporations to be profitable, then so be it, but then we need a system that employs the individuals that the private sector cannot.

What we need is for the government to create employment.

Since 1980, unemployment in the U.S. is averaged at 6.4 percent.

The government could practically eliminate unemployment if it employed individuals to produce the necessities of modern life, which require too much capital or too little profits for the private sector to get involved.

Industries in which a corporate government would prosper are many.

President Obama’s energy policy goal of having one-million plug-in electric cars on the road by 2015 is an area where the government can act.

Obama’s goal is going to put enormous strain on our energy grid.

To combat this so a private electric auto market can flourish, the government needs to build, maintain and control energy-producing infrastructure.

The government is already trying to build such infrastructure, but is approaching it in an unintelligent way.

On Sept. 1 the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds for renewable energy were made available.

The allotment to renewable energy infrastructure given by ARRA is projected to provide $3 billion to private industry.

The problem with the government handing out money in this fashion is that the government gets stuck with the start up cost and will see little profit for its investment.

However, if the government nationalized this new investment, it could hire the scores of the unemployed, quickly build the infrastructure and profit from its investment.

This conundrum has already been demonstrated.

The $26 billion allocated by the ARRA for upgrades to transportation infrastructure has had less than desired results.

Washington State’s ARRA share clocks in at $755,621,832 million and only creates or saves 3,700 jobs.

Throwing money at corporations to create jobs does not work. Corporations pocket the money and take their time to finish these projects with the workforce they already have, instead of hiring more people to quickly finish the projects.

Why is this so?

Because to a high degree, unemployment is good for business. Unemployment makes employees work harder for less, for they fear and know they are easily replaced.
After high school and before college, I worked a job that epitomizes how corporations use unemployment to their advantage.

I worked at a meat-packaging plant, for it was the only job that paid a livable wage of $11 an hour.

The environment was horrible and the work was constant.

I worked 12-hour days with a half hour lunch and two 15 minute breaks, which after taking off your protective equipment gave you a total of 30 minutes of down time a day.

However, every day I worked with a smile on my face, because before and after my shift I walked past thirty people waiting to replace me if I showed any sign of discontent.

I am not recommending that we should switch from capitalism to communism, but I see no harm in a government that employs its unemployed to produce necessities that the private industry cannot or will not provide.

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