Opinion Pieces by Get America Working!

Note: In this special Energy and Climate edition of Innovations magazine, Get America Working! founder Bill Drayton makes the case for a structural change in the U.S. economy that would encourage work and discourage energy waste and consumption of resources. At a time of massive unemployment and focus on upcoming climate negotiations in Copenhagen, he offers a path forward. For the article, click the title above: "Engage People; Retire Things."

With official U. S. unemployment at 10.2% and with Congressional debate on a climate bill sputtering, last week the Senate Finance Committee held a hearing on how climate legislation might help fix the economy and create jobs. At the same time, President Obama announced he would hold a White House forum next month to gather new ideas for achieving the robust job creation that has so far eluded stimulus efforts, and opponents and supporters of cap-and-trade legislation both echoed the jobs theme, saying that in the end, any US climate bill must be a jobs bill. [Click the title for more.]

“Engage People, Retire Things” Explains the Connection Between Unemployment and Climate Change, and How to Get the Jobs/Climate Synergy Working Positively. William Drayton, board chair of the fuller employment policy group Get America Working!, and founder and CEO of Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, has contributed one of the lead articles to a forthcoming special issue of MIT Press’s Innovations Journal on energy and climate solutions, to be published this month. Entitled “Engage People, Retire Things,” Drayton’s essay explains the profound connection between combating the employment crisis and fighting climate change: labor and non-labor inputs to business (such as natural resources, energy and land) are substitutes. The less labor developed economies use, the more resources and energy they use, and the more greenhouse gases they emit.

I'm no economist, though I've worked with plenty of them. As a public interest and public policy PR consultant, the economic indicators I notice most are perceptual and rhetorical: things like the steady uptick in comparisons to the Great Depression, and the new CNN/Opinion research poll that says concern over unemployment has tripled in recent months, making it the top economic issue facing Americans.

Many analysts view the news of spiking unemployment as evidence that the economy is in recession. They talk about a "perfect storm" of rising unemployment, anemic growth and inflation pressure, on top of the housing and credit crises. But the metaphor fits imperfectly. "Storms" are cyclical, followed by clearing. Our current extreme economic weather is not the usual fluctuation of the business cycle; it's a structural disturbance.

Proposals for energy taxes and carbon taxes have been around since the 1970s, but a carbon tax recently has become more admired in the American political dialogue. Some believe it would be a powerful tool to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Others see it as the most economical and efficient means of reducing those emissions.

Testifying before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on global warming this week, former vice president and now climate-change evangelist Al Gore urged Congress "to reduce taxes on employment and production and make up the difference with pollution taxes," principally on carbon dioxide emissions. Like the predictions of climate change, the idea of using revenues from energy (or, if you will, pollution) taxes to reduce payroll taxes is not new, but Gore deserves credit for bringing both to congressional attention at a critical time.

Higher for energy, lower for payrolls - it's a proposal that the left and right are backing.

Unveiling its recommendations last week, the president’s Tax Reform Commission took two swings at fundamental tax reform . . . and missed. The commission proposed substantial changes in the tax code, but missed the opportunity to address what’s fundamentally wrong with the American economy.