GREEN JOBS: THE NEW ECONOMY

Now with the health care bill passed, the economy is again the number one issue on everyone’s minds. People want to know when the economy will pick up again. People used to come to America in droves because it was the land of opportunity. America was a place where people could have a better life for themselves with hard work and drive. The American dream today has changed. The jobs people came to America to seek has gone overseas to people who will work long hours, for barely any pay. America is powerless unless we change how we operate. Our economy is different now. There is a global economy that we have to compete against. This is a horse race and we haven’t even left the gate.
We must start with energy independence. We have the resources in America to be able and sustain ourselves. With energy independence, there would be no need to be fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Once weapons of mass destruction were not found, we continued to fight for one reason in my opinion: oil. We think we need something from these countries so we stay there in pursuit of their resource. We should be focusing our billions of dollars poured into a war and use it to explore our own countries wind, solar, bio-fuel, and natural gas power. These are some of the building blocks for a more secure, stable, and lower carbon energy future.
Green Jobs are the key to bringing our country back to a real global power economically again. Right now there are white collar jobs and blue collar jobs. It’s time to add another sector to this group with green collar jobs. People who have green collar jobs are able to save our environment and make a good living doing it. This can be the salvation for the middle class that is disappearing everyday. We can revitalize the shrinking middle class by educating people in green technologies that will save our planet from climate change (an issue for another day) and bring our country out of debt. We have to provide training that will turn blue-collar 20th century jobs into 21st century green collar jobs. In 2006, renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies generated 8.5 million new jobs and nearly 970 billion in revenue.
We are at a crossroads unlike ever before in our nations history. People are still getting laid off in records numbers, the housing market remains weak, college graduates aren’t guaranteed anything but their diploma, and the stock market is fragile.
Over the next few weeks, Congress is going to attempt to pass financial regulation so that companies like Goldman Sachs can’t scam people out of their money for its own financial gain. In the mean time, the American people need to be creative and work with this administration to put the pieces in place to provide education and training for green jobs. Putting regulations on the greed of Wall Street is part of the solution to the problem, but not the entire solution. Employers are and still will be afraid to hire workers in the months ahead. The pool of jobs that was supposed to be available for my generation fresh out of college has all but dried up. The baby-boomers who were about to retire now have to work more years to recover money lost out of their pensions and 401k. The 10 percent unemployed, the thousands of people who were reduced to part-time work, and college grads who can’t find work can take a stand. We can say enough. The phrase “Going-green” is thrown around a lot, but its importance can not be overlooked. Going green can save our middle-class and bring our country back to prosperity.

Health care reform

This is my first time ever writing on a blog. There have been things on my chest that I just need to get out, and being on the cusp of health care reform I thought this was the appropriate time. We live in a time where the country couldn’t be more split. We have just witnessed the biggest legislative occurrence in 4 decades. Only being 23, I try to put that in perspective. It's difficult.You wouldn’t think that giving health care to 32 million people who are uninsured would take four decades. The sad thing is that health care reform has been discussed since the other Roosevelt was in office. The dream for millions who can’t afford health care or whom were denied because of pre-existing conditions will be no more. Insurance companies were more concerned with their bottom line and stockholders than the people whom they are supposed to serve.Even with the most powerful man in the free world putting his John Hancock with 20 different Washington pens on this bill, 13 attorney generals and every republican is still fighting to have the bill deemed unconstitutional. I’m young and may be naïve with politics, but I always thought that federal law trumped state law. I admit that I am a big supporter of obama but not a fan. The fan of obama loves him because he’s young, hip, plays basketball, and fills out his March madness bracket on espn. A supporter is someone who cheers for obama because he’s truly changed the culture in Washington. He’s a man of the people in every sense. You can start by just looking at the state he’s from, Chicago. Chicago is a place I would actually go and visit. Who would visit Midland Texas or Hope, Arkansas? I think the appeal at least for me is that we can relate to this president. He’s a father raising two young girls, he seems to still be having sex regularly with his wife and with today’s divorce rate, just being married and miserable is rare.There have been people since obama was running for office who opposed him and that is going to happen. You had people like Joe the plumber (doesn’t actually have a plumbing license) speaking out against obama on the campaign trail saying things like he doesn’t want his business affected (doesn’t have a real business). And who wants a muslin from Kenya who isn’t even a U.S. citizen in office? Sometimes it’s hard with so many different media outlets throwing garbage around to get their views and agendas across. I get that there are lobbyist who work around the clock to make sure big agendas don’t get carried out. Washington is all red tape and for obama to be able and at least rip some of the tape off the walls is an monumental accomplishment. So, the appeal for obama is clear and the absolute hatred for obama by the status quo is clear.The people who have been in power know there’s been a change in Washington and they do not like it. When republicans say they wanted to “start over” with the health care bill, what does that really mean. I think it means that they want to delay it as much as possible, preferring to have it never happen. The status quo like how things are. The status quo doesn’t mind that 45,000 people die everyday because they don’t have medical coverage. A change needed to happen and Tuesday at 11:30 am, the beginning of change finally came. The bill isn’t perfect, as the ones writing it aren’t, but this is a gigantic step in the right direction. The status quo is obviously not sustainable and through all the bureaucracy, debates, and town hall meetings, one thing is undeniably clear: lives will be saved everyday from this bill. Hopefully, when the mid-term elections come around, people will realize the ones who pushed the bill past, didn’t do it for political gain, but because as obama said “it was the right thing to do”.