We Can Make It Here

This is not your father’s recession, nor your grandmother’s depression. In size, scope and duration, this economic downturn is different. And off-the-shelf solutions will not suffice.
President Barack Obama has undoubtedly been hearing from businessmen, labor leaders and economists on how to reverse America’s record high unemployment. Pedestrian proposals are inevitable. But truly innovative ideas that can be implemented immediately are what American really needs.
From my perspective, only a strong, stable manufacturing sector can rebuild our economy and create jobs. But I’m biased. Machinist Union members build the ships, planes, rockets and machinery that power our exports and defend our nation. Machinists like to make things. Millions of unemployed and underemployed Americans do, too. The White House should aim to stimulate that we-can-make-it-here spirit.
With that goal in mind, here’s an innovative idea President Obama should consider: Hire the unemployed to renovate and reinvigorate America’s industrial infrastructure.
Among the 31 million Americans idled to some degree in this recession, the talent pool is deep and deeply experienced. Almost 3.4 million were laid off from production, installation and construction jobs. Their skills could be put to work rehabilitating our aging factories and installing new machinery.
Another 5.3 million jobless Americans are college educated, highly skilled, and heavy on expertise. Over 2.6 million come from management and professional ranks. Another 2.7 million once worked in the service sector. If you drill down into the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ numbers, their expertise becomes obvious. Their talents can create the strategic business, financing and marketing plans for revving up our factories.
America needs both brawn and brains to rebuild our manufacturing capacity, end this recession, and ignite a new era of prosperity.
A sustained economic recovery requires us to reassert our global leadership as the producer of innovative, high quality products. To make that happen, however, our Made In America trademark needs a new stream of investments, public and private. And Americans need jobs now!
Combining those two unmet needs creates a powerful logic for a modern version of Franklin Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration. This unique program put 3.5 million men to work in a single year – the equivalent of finding jobs for 8 million Americans today. The WPA focused on local community projects with a lasting value to the nation. It spent 85 percent of its funds on payroll and 15 percent on materials. Some projects demanded brawn. Others relied on brain power. But all were rooted in local initiative and accountability.
A new WPA can be rolled out quickly. Americans can be put to work renovating factories, installing state-of-the-art equipment and updating plans for small to medium-sized businesses. Local communities can use federal dollars to hire the unemployed. Local businesses can get a second chance to go global.
But let’s not stop there. Public funds are being spent to help private enterprises. A new social contract can be written, one that aligns corporate responsibility with community values, one that requires recipients to meet environmental and labor standards, one that requires a long-term commitment to making it in America. To sweeten the deal, investment tax credits can help underwrite renovation costs and purchases of new equipment or processes.
As Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke observed in 2007, this country “needs machines and new factories and new buildings and so forth in order for us to have a strong and growing economy.” To me, the “so forth” is that we-can-make-it spirit. And right now, that spirit could use a huge shot of adrenaline.
President Obama could deliver that boost simply by adding three words to his campaign slogan. “Yes, we can make it here” sounds like a clarion call to action.