Waaaaa!!!!

Joan McCarter blogged in the Daily Kos, yesterday, about the austerity in America.  She brought up a point I’ve been mulling over since Obama made the announcement not too long ago.  He’s bringing our troops home (Yay!), but wait…where will they work once they get home?  With the unemployment rate over 9% already, and many Americans looking for work for months now, what is the President planning to do about putting the war veterans to work?

McCarter also mentions the percentage of employed 16-24 year olds are at an all time low of 45%, as well as Arizona with an amazingly high applicant-to-job opening ratio of 10 to 1, and the millions of people collecting unemployment benefits.  Will the influx of our troops further drain the economy?  Statistics say yes.  McCarter shows that since 2001, war vets have had unemployment percentage rates in the double digits.

Don’t misunderstand; the troops need to come home.  I’m a big supporter of the war on terror, having watched the twin towers explode before my eyes, but we can’t neglect our own country in the process.  Maybe the money saved on the cost of war can be funneled into the unemployment fund for those troops who can’t find a place to work.  Or maybe they’ll go back to school, which will buy America a few years to create the jobs that they will be seeking with their new degrees.

Joan makes great points, but offers little in the way of a solution.  This seems to be the trend with “sensational media” - make the ratings by worrying the community, but don’t bother with bringing answers to the table.  Yes, it’s the government’s job to get us out of this mess.  But we elected them; we have a voice to persuade them to fix our economy.  Maybe they need fresh ideas in how to do this, but they won’t know if we don’t tell them.  Enough with sitting around and complaining about the state of things, we need to get back to the grassroots and make a change ourselves by joining interest groups, emailing our Senator or Representative, and Tweeting our President.