Meander with Me a While, and Leave Your Good Ideas in the Comment Section.

Amidst all this holiday fa-la-la-ing, I’ve been meandering around the current issue of putting people back to work. I think Obama and Joe have some good ideas, and, as a patriotic and concerned citizen I have a few more ideas for them that they can have- no charge.

First, lets make it a rule that if your corporate headquarters is in the USofA, your call center must be as well. Now I think that would put a lot of people to work, and you and I would have the customer service advantage of actually being able to understand the English that our call center representative is using to talk to us a mile a minute. Now, I know regional accents can be a bit confusing at times but hey- I would much rather try to decipher a deep south “can I help you” than a English as a second language learned in a 6 week course ‘can I help you”. I have more patience when I know the call center is supporting the economy of our great nation, and I always love finding out the person is somewhere across the country and asking how the weather is there, and where is a good place to eat if I ever happen to be in their town.

While we are at it, making rules that is- lets say that if your corporate phone menu has more than two selections you must have operators answering the incoming calls and directing people to the correct extension. This would make all our lives much easier and probably save millions of dollars in lost work time as we all know we are making those calls that take 17 different menu selections and 54 minutes to complete on work time.

Why don’t we outlaw those noisy gas guzzling riding mowers, leaf blowers and weed whackers? Make yard work a teen age occupation once again. We would save gas, reduce noise pollution, and get teenagers off their lazy butts and away from the computer long enough to make a little cash for that next game they want. In the process they might loose a few pounds and teen obesity would be reduced as well as health care costs, as many overweight teens become overweight adults with diabetes and heart disease which the cost of medicating put a drain on our health care system. What if someone –like an elderly person on a fixed income- can’t afford to pay a teen? Well, put those welfare recipients, the ones who can’t get a job because they don’t have skills, to work doing yard work for those on a fixed income. Anyone can learn how to mow a yard or wack a weed. Make it mandatory for any able bodied person who is now collecting welfare.

While we are on the subject of welfare- why not make being a stay at home parent an occupation paid for by the government? That’s what welfare is you say? Well, let’s change it a bit- lets say one parent can stay home and get a salary, which is fixed- regardless of the number of children in the family. That might just be incentive for people to stop having so many kids they can’t take care of. Think about it- You only get so much a year. If you only have one kid, there will be a lot more to spend on the really important things- like booze, cigarettes, tattoos and those really fine rims for your shag mobile. Then, make counseling mandatory for any parent in the program, that would put a lot of people to work doing the counseling ( not to mention doing the accounting and paperwork for the program) and the parents would have an opportunity to learn to parent. We could also give them job training starting when ever they want, or if they don’t want- when the child is 16. That would give them two years to learn a skill and get a job before the gravy train stops running.

This program would also be an advantage for those single parent families where the parent is barely making enough to cover child care so they can go to work. Let them get paid to stay at home and be a parent to their child. Give the low pay- hundred hour a week job to someone who does not have a child at home that they are trying very hard to raise right.

If we can spend billions putting our troops overseas, why can’t we spend some money funding after school care centers in every neighborhood in the US? That would put a lot of people to work, taking care of all those kids who live in homes where both parents work. The cost could be subsidized, parents who could pay, and make it very reasonably priced, something could. Those who can’t- don’t.

Speaking of our troops- why don’t we bring them home and put them along our boarders where they belong? Now, I know, there is not much for them to do along the boarders, but they could be developing new green technology, helping in poor neighborhoods- kinda like a peace corps. This would give the military a new meaning, defending America and strengthening our country at the same time it did wonders for boarder town economies. Now don’t get me wrong- I do think they could still do their military exercises and be prepared for what ever it is they prepare for.

I do love the space program, but at this point, I think it’s time to cut a lot of the funding and get all those NASA eggheads into the high schools to develop world class science programs for our young people. I figure if they can put a man on the moon they can probably figure out a way to make science attractive to teenagers and before long the USofA would be tops again in science and technology training. The NASA eggheads would design the programs, and train many more science teachers to do the teaching. We could give schools incentives to spend as much on their science programs as they do on their sports programs. While we are at it, let’s get new built in the USA computers into every school and the IT instructors to go with them.

Why don’t we subsidize salaries for people who work with the elderly, the disabled and kids? Where would we get the money? Why don’t we cut all those tax breaks to big corporations who really should be paying the taxes because they are making all that money! Make jobs that require you to take care of another human important, and make them pay well. We would have more people going into the fields and eventually, enough workers to really fill the needs of our most vulnerable populations. The fact that jobs in these professions are low pay, high turnover is a disgrace to our nation.

Now, at this point you are probably thinking- boy that Meandering sure has some good solid ideas for putting people to work. We should vote for her next time. Now, stay with me because I’m gonna get a little out there on you, but I think, when I’m finished you will still be saying “good idea!” I have also been pondering how to make jobs and improve the health of our population at the same time. This is a little harder to do than just create jobs- however, I think it’s important because not only are a lot of people out of work, our great country can boast the poorest health and the most spent on health care of any developed nation. We really have to turn this around.

How about we learn something from China, where it has been scientifically proven that a population that does Tai Chi on a regular basis is healthier and spends less on health care. They actually have schools to train Tai Chi instructors, and then they place them in neighborhoods to lead regular exercise for the population. It’s considered a great job, and the exercise classes are so popular, there are millions of people doing Tai Chi everyday. I think we should do the same thing.

A scientific study on meditation done in Washington DC showed that crime rates went down in the DC area when they had round the clock meditation practitioners sending out “the vibe” – no, I’m not kidding. We could make meditation a good paying job and set up centers in all the big cities. Keep the vibe going 24/7 and reduce crime rates while we created a lot of jobs.

And last but not least- It’s also been scientifically proven that grain fed beef ( what you typically buy and eat) has way more Omega 6 ( the bad kind) fatty acids than Omega 3 ( the good kind) fatty acids, and this translates to- eating omega 6 beef throws your omega fatty acid balance way off and causes your cholesterol to go way up and your body to be in a state of inflammation all the time which can lead to diabetes, heart disease, arthritis and other serious health problems. However- cattle that eat grass have lots more omega 3’s than omega 6-es, just as the lord intended, and eating that kind of beef is not a health hazard. Now, most people will not give up the beef, but we could bring back free range cattle, and cowboys/cowgirls. Make cattle herding a great paying job, and require the beef industry to set the cattle free. Make it illegal to lot feed, and grain fatten beef, and get rid of the outdated and polluting methods of raising beef that we have now.

Now, I know this is a lot to digest all at once, and there is a lot to consider when you go about makin’ rules and cutting funding and adding funding and using public money and shuttling dollars from big business to care for the disabled. Once you’ve had a time to ponder all this, why don’t you leave a comment with your idea of how to improve the job situation in this country. Once all the suggestions are in, I will send this to the Obama-Biden transition team so they can ponder it too. Oh, yes, they will read it, they owe me one, I’m holding a “health care reform community discussion” for them in my town.

Once you are done putting in your two cents worth, get back to the fa-la-la-ing, ‘tis the season.