Friday, July 3, 2009

Independence day

Jobs report yesterday confirmed that business is still cutting back in order to improve profitability. While eventually there will be some hiring in our legacy industries, our best hope to achieve high employment levels is to foster new growth.

Some of this will happen in technology, but realistically, considering the cost of labor, the actual production will most likely not take place in this country. We only exacerbate this by our current tax system that increases the cost of manufacturing domestically.

The area that I believe holds the most promise is in the area of domestic/renewable energy development. Another area is the improvement of infrastructure. We have a ton of roads, bridges, and other infrastructure that has been ignored or under maintained.

We will have job growth, but some areas, such as construction and heavy manufacturing may very well have seen their peaks. Consumer spending is simply not going to recover as fast as it has in the past. Too much wealth has been lost in the real estate collapse. However, the country can build profitable industries and reduce some of our structural issues by reducing dependence on foreign oil and reforming our tax code.

July 4, 1776 was the day we proclaimed our independence from England. I think it is time to declare our independence from foreign oil.

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