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Bush needs to look at bigger picture of unemployment By MIKE HENDRICKS, Columnist Kansas City Star
September 03, 2003
Who says it's a jobless recovery? A good-paying job opened up only this week in Washington.
President Bush is creating a new assistant secretary of commerce for manufacturing. Whoever is hired will focus on the kind of factory jobs that pay a lot less than the $125,000-plus assistant secretaries make.
Why the new position?
Because the U.S. has lost "thousands of jobs in manufacturing," the president told a Labor Day crowd in Ohio.
Actually, 2.5 million factory jobs have disappeared since early 2001, according to The Washington Post.
But setting aside the fuzzy math, merely knowing we have a president who cares enough about our economic problems to pad the payroll at the Department of Commerce is, in my view, somehow reassuring.
Somehow. As in when someone tells me how that's going to produce jobs, it will be reassuring.
But let's say it worked. Now that the White House is addressing the nation's economic woes through executive appointments that are mostly for show, why stop at manufacturing?
How about an assistant secretary looking into all the white-collar jobs being exported overseas?
Maybe someone could suggest that to the president when he's in town on Thursday speaking to the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce.
Here in KC, unemployed white-collar workers outnumber unemployed blue-collar workers by nearly two to one. One reason: companies now send white-collar jobs offshore the way so many blue-collar jobs disappeared in the last 20 or 30 years.
Consider Sprint. CEO Gary Forsee threatened last month to fire hundreds of American computer programmers and farm the work out overseas.
A year ago, his predecessor fired 3,000 customer service employees and sent that work to India.
Many companies have done the same. Short term, it's good for their bottom lines, but it's lousy for this country.
Therefore, Bush also might want to look into appointing an assistant secretary for showing concern to those who are really having a tough time of it.
Unemployment is at 6 percent. Jobless benefits are running out for some, while many folks who find work are employed by companies providing few if any benefits.
Witness that free dental clinic at Kansas Speedway a couple of weeks ago. Many of the 2,643 treated hadn't seen a dentist in years. They couldn't afford it.
As for those of us with the financial wherewithal to enjoy the luxury of regular dental checkups, the economy still bites. Therefore, I'd suggest Bush appoint an assistant secretary of helping us make ends meet.
It's tough nowadays stretching the paycheck to fit the bills. Gasoline prices are up. Home heating bills will be through the roof this winter.
Plus, with our meager investments still sucking air and wages barely keeping up with inflation, it's practically impossible to send your kids to college anymore without incurring more debt than you'd like.
I could think of others, but there is no assistant secretary in charge of letting columnists yammer on endlessly.
So in closing, I offer greetings to our commander-in-chief.
Thanks for stopping by this week, Mr. President. "Thousands" of Kansas City area residents appreciate the job you're doing with the economy.
As for the other 1.7 million, some of us have our doubts.
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