🚀 go-pugleaf

On Jan 23, 2:06 am, hp...@lycos.com wrote:

> I heard Robert Reichs twisted comments and was shocked. (Robert Reich
> is Tribal)

Well, here in California, the majority of blue collar construction
workers are *Mexicans*, not Whites, but these "hard-working family
men" would be replaced by their gangbanging jailbird kids, if Reich
got his "Green Job Corps".

http://robertreich.blogspot.com/2009/01/stimulus-how-to-create-jobs-without.html

Thursday, January 08, 2009
The Stimulus: How to Create Jobs Without Them All Going to Skilled
Professionals and White Male Construction Workers

The stimulus plan will create jobs repairing and upgrading the
nation's roads, bridges, ports, levees, water and sewage system,
public-transit systems, electricity grid, and schools. And it will
kick-start alternative, non-fossil based sources of energy (wind,
solar, geothermal, and so on); new health-care information systems;
and universal broadband Internet access.

It's a two-fer: lots of new jobs, and investments in the nation's
future productivity.

But if there aren't enough skilled professionals to do the jobs
involving new technologies, the stimulus will just increase the wages
of the professionals who already have the right skills rather than
generate many new jobs in these fields. And if construction jobs go
mainly to white males who already dominate the construction trades,
many people who need jobs the most -- women, minorities, and the poor
and long-term unemployed -- will be shut out.

What to do? There's no easy solution to either dilemma. But there's no
reason to think about "green jobs" as simply high-tech. Many low-
income and low-skilled workers -- women as well as men -- could be put
directly to work providing homes and businesses with more efficient
and renewable heating, lighting, cooling, and refrigeration systems;
installing solar panels and efficient photovoltaic systems;
rehabilitating and renovating old properties, and improving recycling
systems. "Green Jobs Corps" teams could be trained to evaluate and
advise homeowners and businesses on these and other means of
conserving energy.

People can be trained relatively quickly for these sorts of jobs, as
well as many infrastructure j0bs generated by the stimulus --
installing new pipes for water and sewage systems, repairing and
upgrading equipment, basic construction -- but contractors have to be
nudged both to provide the training and to do the hiring.

I'd suggest that all contracts entered into with stimulus funds
require contractors to provide at least 20 percent of jobs to the long-
term unemployed and to people withincomes at or below 200 percent of
the federal poverty level. And at least 2 percent of project funds
should be allocated to such training. In addition, advantage should be
taken of buildings trades apprenticeships -- wich must be fully
available to women and minorities.

posted by Robert Reich | 1:04 PM