[Peace-discuss] Food for thought?

[Marti Wilkinson]

>From Reich's Blog:

*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 with incomes 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 - which must be fully available to women and minorities.*

I think that this suggestion does begin to address some of the inequities
that do exist within the trade professions. I would also go so far as to
recommend that failing to recruit and train women and minorities be subject
to severe penalties.

On Sun, Jan 11, 2009 at 12:45 PM, LAURIE SOLOMON <LAURIE at advancenet.net>wrote:

>  Food for thought?  The question here, I guess is:  if this is actually
> the case and if training people to have the right and most current needed
> skills will take time, what kinds of stimulus can there be which does not
> reward those who already have the skills and jobs while actually
> accomplishing the production of something productive and useful in terms of
> tangible infrastructure improvements and repairs as opposed to merely
> keeping the economy, financial centers, and corporations up and running as
> usual with little actual tangible benefits to the standard of living and
> needs of the ordinary population.?
>
>
>
> FOCUS | The Stimulus
>
> http://www.truthout.org/011109Y
>
> Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Blog: "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...
> 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."
>
>
>
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