Oil cleanup: the next jobs program

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Young people need jobs. The Gulf Coast needs workers. Add it up

By Robert Reich

Friday's job report was awful. For most new high school and college grads finding a job is harder than ever. Meanwhile, states are cutting summer jobs for disadvantaged young people. What to do with this army of young unemployed? Send them to the Gulf to clean up beaches and wetlands, and send the bill to BP.

Florida's panhandle beaches are already marred with sticky brown globs of oil. Workers with blue rubber gloves and plastic bags are already losing the battle to keep them clean. Pelicans and other wildlife coated in oil tar are dying by the droves.

It will get far worse. Most of the oil hasn't hit land yet. When it does, hundreds of thousands of workers will be needed to clean beaches, siphon off oil from wetlands, and rescue stranded wildlife. Tens of thousands more will have to bring in new landfill, replace tarred sea walls, and rebuild shoreline infrastructure.

Yet we've got hundreds of thousands of young people sitting on their hands right now because they can't find jobs. Many are from affected coastal areas, where the tourist and fishing industries have been decimated by the spill.

The President should order BP to establish a $5 billion clean-up fund, and immediately put America's army of unemployed young people to work saving the Gulf coast. Call it the new Civilian Conservation Corps.

(The old CCC -- created by FDR at another time of massive unemployment and environmental stress -- gave millions of young Americans jobs and training to reforest lands that had been degraded, provide emergency flood relief in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys, and build the infrastructure for our national parks.)

http://www.salon.com...p_jobs_open2010

[Tahoma 2,292]

Workers with blue rubber gloves and plastic bags...

I like the idea. However, let's not spoil BP's PR campaign by allowing the workers to wear respirators.

[peejay 327]

I like the idea. However, let's not spoil BP's PR campaign by allowing the workers to wear respirators.

Instead of making asinine comments such as that, why don't you call Obama and ask him why his administration does not enforce OSHA standards that require respirators to be provided and worn as per regulation.

[Tahoma 2,292]

Instead of making asinine comments such as that, why don't you call Obama and ask him why his administration does not enforce OSHA standards that require respirators to be provided and worn as per regulation.

I did...and he told me that Shrub gutted that rule too, along with gutting the entire department. It's going to take a long long time to undo all of Shrub's damage, don't you think?

Maybe you can call Shrub and ask him why his administration gutted the department. Oh nevermind, it's always all about getting the mean old government off of the saintly corporation's back, isn't it?

[Ban Hammer 13,395]

I did...and he told me that Shrub gutted that rule too, along with gutting the entire department. It's going to take a long long time to undo all of Shrub's damage, don't you think?

Maybe you can call Shrub and ask him why his administration gutted the department. Oh nevermind, it's always all about getting the mean old government off of the saintly corporation's back, isn't it?

why don't you call obama and ask him why, after almost 1.5 years in office, he hasn't fixed that yet?

[mendeleev 68]

This is a nice idea -- hire a bunch of unemployed workers to clean up the oil spill and send the bill to BP -- I like it a lot.

And if BP gets the bill for a bunch of respirators, so much the better.

[Tahoma 2,292]

why don't you call obama and ask him why, after almost 1.5 years in office, he hasn't fixed that yet?

I did...and he told me that it's going to take more than a year and a half to clean up the mess left by the worst administration in American history. I agreed with him.

Did you call Shrub yet and ask him why he gutted just about every enforcement arm of the government? Or, maybe you don't want to because you approved of it.

[spookyturtle 9,466]

The American cleanup workers should get respirators and the illegals should have to buy their own.

[DEDixon 39]

Robert Reich <-- can't stand this guy.

marketplace.org has him as commentator. he is all about big gov't and higher taxes. but, what can you expect from a berkeley professor, right?

[DEDixon 39]

why don't you call obama and ask him why, after almost 1.5 years in office, he hasn't fixed that yet?

hey, and while you have him on the phone Tahoma, ask him about port security too. the dems, under Shrub, were all over port security holes until they had the power to address it. now that they have the power, it is off their radar.... hmmm, what's up with that?

Edited June 7, 2010 by DEDixon

[Dan J 277]

Robert Reich <-- can't stand this guy.

marketplace.org has him as commentator. he is all about big gov't and higher taxes. but, what can you expect from a berkeley professor, right?

At least he is offering ideas, what do you got?

[Ggreen 12]

Where is shamwow guy when we need him most?

[DEDixon 39]

At least he is offering ideas, what do you got?

ideas

[Dan J 277]

ideas

Nothing, I thought so.

[Tahoma 2,292]

hey, and while you have him on the phone Tahoma, ask him about port security too. the dems, under Shrub, were all over port security holes until they had the power to address it. now that they have the power, it is off their radar.... hmmm, what's up with that?

Your power to avoid the subject is duly noted.

~ Tahoma

Start.a.new.thread.