Clinicians inform me that a person with bradykinesia moves, just slowly. I wonder how much of that is true. Some days, I feel as though my fingertips and hands are experiencing small repeated 6.5 earthquakes. If I were James Bond, I would order a Martini, “No need to stir. I can shake it myself.” It’s a form of ‘slow death.’
Tag Archive: God’s Job Creator
In his first news conference after winning the US presidential election in November, US President-elect Donald Trump said he will be the greatest job producer that God ever created. The policies, besides tariffs, that support the claim are few.
Negating the fact Trump considers CNN a “fake news” organization, CNN Money reported America gained 10.9 million new jobs under President Obama’s tenure. Trump’s campaign calls America’s jobs picture “disastrous” and a “total failure.” However, almost all of the job gains under President Obama were in service jobs, such as those in Silicon Valley and consulting while others were low-end, toiling in stores and restaurants.
So can Trump be the greatest job producer God ever created? Putting aside the problem of being able to actually query God for verification, can Trump be successful? Blogger Anthony De Rosa humorously posted:
“And on the 5th day, God created Trump, who became the greatest job creator.”
Jeanne McKenna of the Washington Post wrote Trump promised to make the auto industry in Michigan “bigger and better and stronger than ever before.” Mind you that sounded eerily like the opening sequence of the Six Million Dollar Man television show. Maybe Trump wants to make America like the 1970’s again? In May, Trump promised better. He promised to be God.
“I will give you everything. I will give you what you’ve been looking for for 50 years. I’m the only one.“
Maybe historians can add the above into the New Revised Trump Testament. Trump 1: 1. “In the beginning Trump promised to give you everything. For he was the only one.” At this point, Trump is only promising jobs which has little to do with getting paid.
Trump often portrayed himself as a savior of the working class who will “protect your job.” But a USA TODAY NETWORK analysis (June 2016 article) found he has been involved in more than 3,500 lawsuits over the past three decades with a large number of those involving ordinary Americans claiming Trump or his companies have refused to pay them.
To place the greatest living job creator thingy in perspective, one only needs to remember the current U.S. unemployment rate, hovering under 5%. Including the under-employed, there aren’t many employable people left for God’s Greatest Job Creator to tap. For Trump to achieve his target, the economy would have to grow by 3 to 4 percent annually — a prospect that is far-fetched, according to most economists.
Wait! Maybe Trump will combine Russia’s unemployed with that of the United States? Russia’s unemployment rate is estimated to be 5.8% or so. By combining U.S.’s and Russia unemployed, he creates a larger labor pool. Hm! Then again, does God want Trump to help Russia with jobs? Eh? Hard to say.
On a serious note, if Trump needs a mentor, he should look no further than Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR). In a Slate article, Charles Peters and Timothy Noah noted:
FDR’s New Deal employed 4 million people within one month. FDR’s staff was approving over 100 projects a day. Over the course that followed, the government laid 12 million feet of sewer pipe and built or made substantial improvements to 255,000 miles of roads, 40,000 schools, 3,700 playgrounds, and nearly 1,000 airports.
Many of the jobs involved manual labor, to which most of the population, having been raised on the farm, was far more accustomed than it would be today. But FDR’s administration also provided considerable white-collar work, employing, among others, statisticians, bookbinders, architects, 50,000 teachers, and 3,000 writers and artists. This was achieved with a remarkable minimum of overhead. Of the nearly $1 billion—the equivalent today of nearly $16 billion—spent during the first five months, 80 percent went directly into workers’ pockets and stimulated the economy by going into the cash registers of grocers and shop owners. Most of the rest went to equipment costs. Less than 2 percent paid for administration.
Seriously, few, if any, believe Trump will be God’s Job Creator. Few believe he is the Chosen One.