Where the jobs at?

Improved trade with China is not a cure for our unemployment numbers. Definitely won't hurt. But if we want American jobs that are not going to be given to robots or moved overseas and over borders we have to start thinking about things differently.

Infrastructure
We (at least partially) spent our way out of the Great Depression by investing in infrastructure. At 14 my grandfather and his brother went off to join the CCC where they were taught a trade and put to work renovating state parks and other public properties. Obama promised this but I'm not seeing the profane devotion to infrastructure I expected from him. Remember when the right was worried Obama was going to give all the poor cushy government jobs to cement Democrats in office? I didn't see that happen.

Unions
I have mixed feelings on Unions. At their best Unions protect workers from abusive employers from screwing over their employees. I would have grown up without knowing my grandfather if it wasn't for the Carpenters Union providing him such excellent healthcare (Throat cancer from chewing tobacco).
On the other hand unions are another bureaucracy that don't serve those who don't know how to work the system and they bully business's into forfeiting control of their own companies.
What we need is an investigation into Unions that result in a guide to running a union as symbiotic to business not a parasite. I have a couple of ideas but I need to do some research before I throw them out there.

Job Corps
Instead of throwing a bunch of money at a stupid border fence we should be putting that money into Job Corps. If we flood the labor market with young workers there will be less jobs for illegal immigrants. I never heard of Job Corp until I was almost 30. High Schools should be presenting it as an option to everyone struggling in the education system instead of pushing college on everyone.

Internal economy
I don't have a problem with global trade but we have to have a healthy internal economy in case we piss off the rest of the world. Actually it is too late for that and Hu (our president's guest from China)was blatantly expressing his interest in seeing the end of the US dollar as global currency (I blogged about it last year).
The problem with our economy is that a very big chunk is out of circulation (rich people not spending it) and those who do spend it can't afford to buy American goods or local produce.

New Tax Status
I'm not sure about this one because I'm not an accountant, but I wonder if we need a new tax status for generous employers and/or altruistic businesses.

Stacking the Deck
As I expressed in my 2010 congressional campaign we need to end corporate welfare. I'll never get why people are more concerned with redistributing the wealth than they are tax money being used to stack the deck against small business (aka where most jobs come from).

Bulldozers and yachts
I'm keeping an eye on bulldozers and yachts over cars. These large vehicles are probably not going to be made by robots anytime soon because the production numbers are not high enough. Bulldozers are being made in Illinois and Yachts in Wisconsin.