Hey, Government, Can You Spare a Job?

Paul Krugman in today’s NYTimes editoral describes the huge jobs problem America faces.  Krugman states: ” There are six times as many Americans seeking work as there are job openings, and the average duration of unemployment — the time the average job-seeker has spent looking for work — is more than six months, the highest level since the 1930s.”

A key among Krugman’s suggestions is that local and state governments need some help since they can’t borrow their way out of trouble like the Federal government can.  These agencies have direct impact on the quality of our lives in terms of police enforcement to education to the quality of our streets.

Krugman contends it is way past time for mere “symbolic gestures” and it is imperative that real job growth is promoted.

Hey, bloggers, can you spare an opinion?

What is my job as a citizen?

I’m struggling.

I want to toss some thoughts out because I’m not sure what a citizen’s role really is in the US anymore. I’m curious what people here think.

Until recently, I thought that my primary role in the running of our country was to communicate and understand what my elected officials were doing. Those who communicated effectively with me and who made decisions I either agreed with (or at least understood the logic behind) were to be rewarded with my vote. Those who were less effective in those tasks I’d vote to replace. That’s what I understood in my civics class back at Oxon Hill High School.

Maybe high school civics from the 70’s doesn’t really apply anymore.

A few years back, I resolved never to speak again on two things – faith and politics. It seemed to me that there was no longer the convention that folks could talk about these things, disagree, and move on as if they’d spoken about nothing of more consequence than the weather.

All the same, I slip up on that resolution sometimes.

What's the point? We're not changing each others minds

It has come to the point that when people discuss those topics, the goal is very often to bring the other person to the opposite side, or berate them as a fool, or worse.