Dear President-elect Obama,
The nation is enormously pleased and excited about the appointments you’ve made, the depth of attention you’re devoting to the matter of this nation’s economy and the swiftness and intellectual seriousness you’re applying to resolve the matter. It’s a great first start.
Jobs must now and always be the focus. That was the major imperative FDR intuitively and immediately understood. President-elect Obama, being the keen student of history you are, you know that during the thirties, FDR created public works projects that lead to jobs that lead to people getting back to work, that lead to the country feeling good about itself again, that restored confidence to individual Americans and restored America’s collective confidence in America.
All people who sincerely wanted to work had to do then was get up early enough to be among the first in line. Employers recognized and believed it was their civic responsibility to hire all who wanted to work. They believed they were helping rebuild America.
Today the media talks about jobs and unemployment in cold, faceless statistics. Federally funded, so-called job development agencies are perpetuating that mind set. No one is on the side of the integrity of the American worker anymore, or is our government so completely removed from the hopes and dreams and aspirations of the “REAL” average American worker?
The “REAL” average American worker has graduated from high school and has landed a job within ten miles of his home town, quickly married and immediately started a family. They seem always to have two children: a girl and a boy. They’re not shopping the market for the right “career fit.” They’re content with living where they live, how they live, and with what they’re living for: their families, their homes and their communities. And the occasional pizza delivery.
The “REAL” average American family are people who sacrifice and live within their means. They’re proud of what they do, proud they are able to support their families. They fervently need to be able to rely on the stability of their jobs, because this is the rock-solid foundation for everything they are and all that they do. All other ground is sinking sand.
Once the job is in place, heads-of-households begin to plan for their futures and the immediate future of their children. Notice I said immediate, not long-term future of their children. The “REAL” average American family is not necessarily socking away money for college for their children. They believe, if this a desire their children have, it is their responsibility as parents to provide a secure, stable, nurturing home for their children to be able to excel throughout their public school career.
Based on that record of excellence, the “REAL” average American family expect their children to get into college on scholarship, work, avail themselves to available student aid, work, do well in college, work, graduate, then work to pay off those student loans. Notice the importance of the expectation of work. The children are grateful for the occasional care package they receive from their parents or the occasional money gift and their love, support and encouragement. The children then pass these expectations and values on to their children. The foundation of it all is their parent’s ability to get and sustain their jobs.
We seem to have forgotten how “REAL” average Americans feel about working. They don’t care about having a “career trajectory.” They just want to work. They just want to keep their jobs. They want their parents to be proud of them. They prefer to stick with those same co-workers. They want to pay their bills. They want to stay connected to their siblings. They want to establish and maintain their friendships. They love to talk about how long they’ve known this one or that one or how long they’ve been affiliated with their church, how close they are to their parents, or how long they’ve held that job. Listen to the “REAL” average American and see what I say is true.
The “REAL” average American does not want glamour, they want consistency and stability. They want to earn a paycheck so they can support their families and their communities and live where they’ve always lived all their lives. They’re not whining about healthcare or spinning tales of woe about healthcare gone wrong. They use nearby Urgent Care facilities, not emergency rooms.
Now people are scared. They’re eating eggs and Raaman noodles for dinner every night, and the worst part: When they lose their jobs, it’s next to impossible to land another job. Here is the real crisis of confidence, Mr. Obama. It’s not because there are no jobs out there to be had, because there are. It’s because there are far too many people, companies and agencies who have the power to hire but instead choose to serve their own self interests. They are the ones who are really benefitting by turning the application process into a mean, protracted ordeal because it’s in their self interest– It’s their job. It’s what they do. See how busy they are doing their job.
They’re objective is not to fill positions especially. They’re working to proliferate a process. They reduce otherwise good people– devoted parents, sons, daughters, sisters, brothers, husbands, wives, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends, into a tidy heap of 8 1/2 by 11 tucked inside manila files. It’s about paper, not people!
During the Depression, one person took your name and address, sized you up, and then pointed you toward where you were going to work (remember Russell Crowe’s Jim Braddock in Cinderella Man)? Millions of people went to work that way and continued to make this country great. The Empire State building in New York City was erected during the Great Depression! Today, you need a Vice-President of Human Resources, a Director of Human Resources, a HR Manager, several HR supervisors, and all of their HR administrative assistants. And let’s not forget the Receptionist who everyone knows is the chief screener.
You have to spend hours filling out one online application and you will still be expected to be packing a hard copy of your resume when you come to the interview. As you stand on the outside longingly looking in, it hits you– all these people at these various companies have jobs because you don’t. If this went on in the ‘30’s and ‘40’s, we would never have put people back to work and grown the economy as steadily as FDR did.
Mr. President-elect, if you’re still with me here, there are two rather simple ways you and your crack team can facilitate job growth within the first six months of your presidency. What you have to do is:
1. Appeal to companies desire to prove to Americans just how committed to America they truly are. They must relax (or better yet, eliminate altogether) the arduous application process that is demoralizing the spirit of all those who can, are willing and able, and who simply want to work, not write a book.
People who don’t work steadily are people who can’t pay bills, keep up with a mortgage, maintain an expensive hobby or hunt moose. People who don’t work stay home and find other, inexpensive, “creative” ways to cope, mechanisms that may not be the most physically, emotionally or spiritually helpful.
2. Appeal to companies to suspend the practice of using staffing agencies to fill positions with contract or temporary workers to whom they don’t provide healthcare benefits. People will work without benefits in exchange for permanent employment status.
I guarantee these two simple appeals will get real people back to work!
For years, this quote “Actors are cattle” was attributed to Alfred Hitchcock, the famous director of Psycho, The Birds and Rear Window. During a televised awards ceremony, (which I was watching, by the way), Mr. Hitchcock clarified the misquote saying “I never said actors are cattle. I said actors should be treated like cattle.”
Everyone’s out doing themselves publicly decrying outsourcing and jobs being shipped overseas. This little talked about, horrid, hateful, practice of using valuable human resources (people) as temporary/contract workers has kept families living in fear and on the edge and for years! People are being treated like cattle. There should be some outcry about that!
Companies need to post “HELP WANTED” signs, announce the number of jobs they’re needing to fill, and then have their HR personnel walk the line. If every company in the nation did this, every person in this nation who truly wants to work will work. 
Maybe CEO’s and COO’s can demonstrate their altruism and their commitment to America by donating the disposable portion of their salaries and bonuses (the part their using to buy yachts, and maintain multiple homes and cars and their expensive memberships in country clubs) toward the newly hired who waited on that line. Demonstrate that spirit of self-sacrifice that once was a moral descriptor of American. Just long enough to see America though this crisis and until she gets back on her feet.
The Great Depression lasted 14 long, hard years, but throughout, Americans came to the real aid of other Americans, not by donating millions of dollars to some charity, or think-tank consortiums, or adopting foreign children, but by providing work to those who simply want to work.
President-elect Obama, we don’t need a stimulus check. We know how to stimulate ourselves. President Obama, people want jobs, not stimulus checks! 
That’s all. Thanks for listening.
A couple months ago I applied for a job at Marine base in San Diego that paid $10.00 an hour. You would have to wait at least half a year before health and life insurance benefits would kick in.
a real marriage going on up in here, not just a strategic partnership. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I admire the Clinton’s relationship. Sometimes intellectual compatibility is better than great sex. Theirs is the modern day public personification of “philia,” the Greek term for friendship or amiability; a crucial component of the good life.
