How to win an election in this economy
Jenson Hagen
The discussion in large part has been focused around job losses and creating jobs. With unemployment inching near 10%, it's a major problem for households that cannot find work. Unfortunately, there are two other major groups that don't get enough attention.
Group 1: Unemployed persons where not enough jobs exist (as mentioned) Group 2: The underemployed that work part time or in a position way below skill level Group 3: The gainfully employed that cannot obtain bonuses, pay increases or upward mobility
These latter two groups represent a far greater percentage of the electorate. Group 3 is massive when you also include persons that are cash strapped or soaked in debt. For example, consider how many people are going through a divorce or needing to move and can't sell their home because the value is less than the mortgage. It's not that these people are in foreclosure due to a job loss or health issue. It's the mere fluctuation in home prices as a result of too much supply running head long into too little demand.
It's a problem that pervades under the surface without a really good way to bring attention to the matter. Getting people excited about the process is hard when the conversation is so dull, dreary and dire. I don't have the answer as to how to message to these two latter groups. Maybe continuously mentioning that Republicans have succeeded in dismantling the middle class would be nice. Or, conservative policies have wiped out the working class financially. It's not a very inspiring way to connect with voters, but this is where a hotbed of votes exists.
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10:31 a.m.
Sep 25, '10
Yeah, we're human and so naturally focus way out on the edgesw. Doing so, we miss the much larger adjacent group.
Similarly the discussion re minimum wage ignores those making, let's say...$7.60 to $9.00 and often getting enough fewer hours than 40, that they are ineligible for healthcare coverage and other bennies.
Much larger group and not subject to the "They're all teenagers, so who gives a damn" argument.
11:55 a.m.
Sep 25, '10
:-)
7:31 p.m.
Sep 25, '10
_______
Credit Free Economy More Jobs, No Debt, No Fear. Prosperous, Fair and Stable.
_______
Our economy is slowly dying, your job, lifestyle are dominated by anxiety.
The economy is kept alive artificially.
No one is proposing a solution because no one has the slightest idea of why it is happening and many have vested interest in the present system.
However an objective observation of the phenomenon can help us understand it and provide us with an innovative solution.
Of course we can't solve the problem with the tools that brought us there in the first place and we need a new ideology.
<hr/> _______________________________In order to alleviate those economic woes wee need to create, as fast as possible, a new credit free currency that will solve the credit crunch and bring incremental jobs, consumption and investments to the present system.
An Innovative Credit Free, Free Market, Post Crash Economy
A Tract on Monetary Reform
It is urgent if we want to limit social, political and military chaos.
<hr/>7:38 p.m.
Sep 25, '10
This appears to be a "tract" on monetary reform that contains one chart with numbers and a Telephone music video. It's so today!
7:33 p.m.
Sep 25, '10
I agree it is much harder to the Poorly Employed. Truly a challenge, and I myself don't have any bright ideas.
9:44 p.m.
Oct 10, '10
Economy is a hard issue to run because it ends up committing you to various policy options once you are in office. Unfortunately, though, the real solutions to the economic problems here in Oregon are all things that will never ever be enacted. State level policies have little economic impact, and of course Oregon has a balanced budget rule. So if you do run on Economy, and it doesn't improve, you might be looking for a new job in 2 years.
We have a housing crisis today because of bad lending practices by banks - a process known as control fraud, which you can read about in any article by William K Black. Here's one: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-k-black/the-two-documents-everyon_b_169813.html
While the crisis does mask two other phenomena - demographic shifts in housing and the general economic malaise brought on by decades of misunderstood economics - these are gradual and building changes, not sudden crises.