27 Ideas For Jobs and Growth

http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2011/08/27-ideas-for-jobs-and-growth

This morning's unemployment report is relatively positive news — private sector payroll growth, government payroll reductions. But there is plenty more to be done to encourage economic growth and private-sector job creation. Some possibilities:

1. "offer states the flexibility to convert their unemployment insurance payments from checks sent to the jobless into vouchers that can be used by companies to hire workers," suggests Bloomberg News columnist Jonathan Alter, relaying an idea from a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate from Massachusetts, Alan Khazei.
2. The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, along with professors Gregory Mankiw, Robert Shimer, Robert Barro, and Steven Davis have all argued that extending unemployment benefits to 99 weeks has made unemployment higher. Congress could stop extending the program to 99 weeks.
3. Alternatively, Congress, or the states, could alter the unemployment benefit formula so that the amount of the payment gradually decreases over time, reducing the propensity of beneficiaries to stay on unemployment until they frantically search for a job and find it just as the benefits run out.
4. Alternatively, Congress, or the states, could alter the unemployment benefit formula so recipients get all 99 weeks worth of benefits, or a hefty share of it, up front. They can then use the money as capital to start small businesses. Or if they find a job quickly, they can save or invest the money. The idea is to change the program so it creates an incentive for recipients to get a job, rather than an incentive for them to remain unemployed.
5. Offer a repatriation tax holiday that would let companies like Microsoft and Cisco, with big cash stashes overseas, bring the money back to America without being taxed at our high corporate tax rates. Senator Schumer has reportedly expressed some support for this idea.
6. Lower corporate tax rates to the 23% rate suggested by the bipartisan Senate "gang of six" from the current 35%, which isn't competitive internationally.
7. Lower corporate tax rates to 15% or 20% and make the Bush tax cuts permanent, as Nobel laureate economist Robert Mundell suggests. "That is the secret to getting the U.S. economy going again," he said.
8. Lower the capital gains tax rate to zero, which is what it is in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Switzerland.
9. Enforce the laws against gardeners, nannies, and restaurant dishwashers who are illegal immigrants, creating job openings for legal workers (and bringing more payroll and income tax money into the system and out of the black-market, under-the-table cash economy).
10. Vastly increase the number of legal immigrants allowed into America. America's high-growth periods have always been powered by immigrants and their children and grandchildren, and our country has a way of attracting the most hardworking and venturesome people from around the world. Some of our big international competitors, China and India, have more people than we do. The book Immigrant Inc. makes the case for immigration's contribution to growth.
11. One specific way to increase legal immigration would be the "Stopping Trained in America Ph.D.s from Leaving the Economy Act," or the "Staple Act," which would effectively staple a green card to the diploma of foreigners who earn their doctoral degrees in America.
12. Another is the "add a zero" plan of conservative columnist George Will, which would raise the number of employment green cards issued each year to 1.4 million from 140,000.
13. Change the health insurance program for military families (TriCare) so that it covers in-vitro fertilization (currently it does not). More children equal more growth.
14. Change the food stamp program to include an asset test. Currently, there's just an income test, which is one reason a record 45,753,078 persons, or about 1 in every 6.8 Americans, participated in the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program in May 2011, at a cost of $6.1 billion for the month.
15. Or, address food stamps by imposing a work requirement on able-bodied individuals, as suggested by the sponsors of the Welfare Reform Act of 2011.
16. Pass Rep. Jeff Flake's Reducing the Deficit through Eliminating Agriculture Direct Payment Subsidies Act, or REAPS Act. Created in the 1996 Freedom to Farm Act, direct payments were intended to serve as a temporary transitional handout to farmers as they moved in a more market-oriented direction. Congress made direct payments permanent in 2002 and they have cost taxpayers more than $41 billion since then. Eliminating direct payments would save taxpayers $28 billion over the next ten years.
17. Pass Rep. David Schweikart's Private Company Flexibility and Growth Act, raising to 1000 from 500 the number of shareholders a private company can have before having to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The bill has at least two Democratic co-sponsors.
18. Pass Rep. Geoff Davis's Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny, or REINS, Act, which would subject every regulation with an economic effect of at least $100 million to an up-or-down vote by Congress before enactment.
19. Pass the free trade agreement with Colombia.
20. Pass the free trade agreement with South Korea.
21. Pass the free trade agreement with Panama. As the Chamber of Commerce's Tom Donohue puts it, "every day that we delay these FTAs, American workers, manufacturers, and farmers risk losing business to our competitors. In short, kiss American jobs and growth goodbye." President Obama supports all three of these agreements.
22. As Rep. Rick Crawford recommends, put the kibosh on the Environmental Protection Agency's "outrageous proposal to heavily regulate farm dust under the Clean Air Act. This regulation alone threatens thousands of agriculture-related jobs."
23. Allow oil and gas exploration and development in portions of the Rocky Mountains.
24. Allow oil and gas exploration and development in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico.
25. Allow oil and gas exploration and development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
26. Allow oil and gas exploration and development in the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf.
27. Allow oil and gas exploration and development in the Pacific Outer Continental Shelf. ExxonMobil cites a study that says opening all five of these areas could generate 400,000 new jobs by the year 2025.

Please add your own ideas, if you have any, in the comments.

by Editor  |  Aug 5, 2011 at 8:59 am Related Topics:  Energy, Regulation, Taxes, Unemployment receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free futureofcapitalism.com mailing list