Hey Donna, Why don't you "just make the jobs?"
Here's my message, corporate America types: Make the jobs they need. You will handle it when bosses, customers and stockholders yell. Just make the jobs. Quit being afraid of tax hikes, or health care or losing your bonus and make the dang jobs. Here's how: Grab your budget and squeeze out one new ad. Then pop in a kid. Squeeze out one executive retreat and pop in four kids.
That is the essence Donna Crane's article for USA today. Perhaps her shallow understanding of business and economics is why she "used to be a cog in the wheel of corporate America," but now teaches at a university. Marxists always seem to end up among the faculty.
Here's an idea Donna: if it's so simple, if we just need to "make the jobs," then why don't you do it? I don't know what university Donna works for because she didn't mention it, but I'm assuming they have an athletic department. Why don't we just squeeze that out, and increase the number of student tutors? Why don't we cut back on teacher pay, and hire some fresh new faculty? I'm sure there's room in the teacher's lounge for a few recent graduates. Why don't you cut back on your personal spending, and hire one of these brilliant kids to work for you, or sacrifice your generous pension so GE can free up some capital?
It's so easy to point the finger at "big business" and demand jobs. The truth is, businesses aren't in business to create jobs for recent graduates. They're in business to make money for their shareholders or owners. The jobs are just a convenient, beneficial side-effect. Businesses can't just stop being afraid of tax increases or skyrocketing health care costs. If they did that, they wouldn't last long. Without the company, there are no jobs.
Even if they could just "pop in a kid" here and there, it would never be enough. "Big Business" isn't a particularly big employer. From 1993 - 2008, 64% of all new jobs were created by small businesses, not giant firms. Over 95% of U.S. companies are small businesses. Why is this important? Unlike their larger counterparts, many—if not, most—small businesses don't have cash to hoard. If "big business" is afraid of health care and tax increases, small business owners are having night terrors.
Until political stability is restored, and Obama's anti-business agenda is rolled back, or at least halted, I wouldn't expect much job recovery, if any. It's hard to do business when you're constantly worried your industry could be the next target in big government's cross-hairs.