Article first published as Americans Need Jobs on Technorati.

We’re in a heap of hurt here people. Unemployment is stuck at 9.5%, and real unemployment, which includes those who have stopped looking for work, is still at 16.5%. This means we have nearly 30 million Americans competing at a ratio of 5-to-1 for what jobs are presently available. A continued jobless recovery with the possibility of a double-dip recession — what’s the average American to do?

People can help improve the situation by voicing their opposition to the anti-job policies promoted by certain factions in the federal government. The current focus on the deficit would be one such item. The last thing we need now is to further reduce the purchasing power of average Americans by trying to cut deficits at the expense of the middle and working classes. We successfully climbed our way out of a 122% deficit after World War 2; we’ll climb out of today’s 94% deficit too. The screech of the deficit hawks is really nothing but a wrong-minded attempt to draw attention from where it belongs — on job creation.

Concerned citizens can also make a difference by ignoring the fear mongers and voicing support for programs designed to help average Americans and create jobs. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) is one such program. Though it’s taken a beating from conservative trash talkers, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) the program has created between 2 million and 4 million full-time-equivalent (FTE) jobs, helped raise the GDP, and served to restrain further increases in unemployment. The only real problem with the stimulus is that it was too small.

If citizens really want to make progress, they need to compliment the above with a full court press on the Obama economic team. The trillions poured into Wall Street must at this point be considered a bad investment. The money cycle is still stalled, with small business and average Americans frozen out, while the banks that were saved are enjoying free money from the Fed and still partaking of the gambling practices that crashed the economy. Wall Street greed is the closest thing there is to a direct cause of these dire economic times — you can’t remove 8 million jobs from the economy and just keep on truckin’. The Obama team can, at the very least, increase the price of money to force these thieves to lend again. Obama can also appoint an advocate of the middle class to chair the newly created CFPB.

The last major part of the job picture is the impact of globalization. Unlike other areas where the American people must exert their will through political pressure, including their votes, The People can actually intervene directly in the trade imbalance. They can do so by buying American, which in general terms means shopping somewhere besides Wal-Mart. The nation’s largest retailer identifies more than 70% of its products as originating in China, and most of the rest from its other 47 foreign sources. Wal-Mart is the largest importer of goods from China and a direct contributor to the estimated 1.8 million jobs American jobs lost as a result.

Of course, a change in shopping habits alone will not remedy the situation. One key reason that China now enjoys such a trade advantage is the manipulation of the value of their currency. Estimated to be undervalued by approximately 40%, it’s impossible for American manufacturers to compete. Couple their artificial currency valuation with trade agreements that essentially allow them to pilfer the intellectual property of competitors, and the picture really starts to form. Add to this, their total disregard for the environment and regulations to protect it, and it becomes crystal clear that the deck is stacked. China enjoyed a $28.7 billion trade surplus in July — the U.S. accounted for $26 billion of that. These issues must be addressed by the federal government.

If Americans are ever again to enjoy anything resembling full employment and decent wages, The People must push the government to do the right thing. Businesses will do what serves business, and as in the case of Wal-Mart, what’s good for business isn’t always good for the American people. Fortunately, government is charged with serving the needs of The People — we just need to join together and remind them of that.

Late last week, Presidents Obama’s panel to review the use of “clean coal” technology called for an active U.S. government role in promoting carbon capture and storage, or CCS. The panel, comprised of fourteen federal agencies/departments and other stakeholders, recommended that the federal government provide both financial and technical support to forward the use of CCS. Their report did identify issues with the technology, but advised to move forward with federal assistance, including the potential “transfer of liability to the federal government after site closure.”

But news for the coal industry isn’t all good. Oddly enough, while Washington seems to be convinced that the nation can effectively establish a “clean coal” infrastructure, Wall Street is working to curb the use of coal, or at least a large component of its mining.  According to Huffington Post, Wells Fargo recently became the “sixth major bank to curb its financial relationship with coal operators that practice mountaintop removal (MTR) mining.”

So, while the Obama administration is pushing for 10 “clean coal” projects to be built, Wall Street is effectively limiting the spread of environmentally damaging coal mining operations. It’s an odd mix to say the least. It’s certainly important to stop mountain top removal, but the issues surrounding the use of coal go far beyond just its mining. Coal is by far the dirtiest source of energy we have. EPA estimates put average carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions for coal at 2,249 lbs/MWh, which is nearly twice that of natural gas and even a third more than oil.

But, of course, coal also happens to be the least expensive fossil fuel, which is why it accounts for 56% of US electricity generation. So, in its “dirty” form, coal is a cost competitive source of energy, but when harm to the environment is considered, the scale starts tipping in the other direction.

The “solution” advertised for the dichotomy between the two faces of coal, the dirtiest and the cheapest source of energy, is purported to be “clean coal.” This oxymoronic nirvana is supposed to be reached through carbon capture and sequestration (CCS). It’s a great idea: we’ll just pump all that nasty C02 that’s emitted back under ground where it can’t do any harm . . . unless it leaks into the atmosphere, or contaminates the water supply, or causes geological instability. But at least it would be a way to effectively use our cheapest source of energy, right?

No, not really. The problem is that CCS technology is very expensive. In fact, coal power generation using CCS is, quite likely, the MOST EXPENSIVE alternative we have. The CCS technology actually makes the coal-based generation of electricity nearly half-again as expensive as solar. So, a nonrenewable energy source that’s very expensive and carries with it long term storage liabilities so serious that the private sector is unwilling to accept them — why would we even contemplate such an illusory solution?

Because that’s the way we do it in the good old U.S. of A, where protecting vested interests is job #1. In 21^st Century America, corporate profits are what drive the engines of government. And the 48-company, American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE) is not about to give up its profits. The $57 billion they pocketed in 2007 may not be enough to fund CCS research, but it sure pays for a heap of advertising and lobbying.

Our nation does need to take into account the thousands of jobs provided by the coal industry across the 27 coal-mining states, but investment in CCS is not the path to take. The U.S. is at an energy crossroads, and investment in alternative sources is needed. That investment can either be directed toward extending the use of environmentally harmful sources or into the creation of renewable green technologies. Existing corporate profits aside, the choice is clear. It’s time to retrain America’s energy job force, redirect our energy investment and spending, and forge a path to energy independence and a clean energy economy.

“For most of the past 70 years, the U.S. economy has grown at a steady clip, generating perpetually higher incomes and wealth for American households. But since 2000, the story is starkly different. There has been zero net job creation since December 1999. No previous decade going back to the 1940s had job growth of less than 20 percent..

Fred Branfman, Huffington Post

So begins Fred Branfman’s account of the status of politics and the economy in America. The story he tells isn’t a happy one, but it’s honest, and it should be mandatory reading for all Americans. If you care about our Country, if you truly want your children and grandchildren to have a better future, then you’ll take the time to read this. These are dire times for America. We are at war, but not with a foreign enemy. The enemy is greed, and nothing less than the future existence of the middle class is at stake.

The truth of the matter is, as Mr. Branfman points out, the American middle class is slowly being squeezed from existence. Job growth has been zero for the past decade, and the current real unemployment rate is over 17 percent. Looking more closely at 21^st Century America, Mr. Branfman tells us, “Economic output rose at its slowest rate of any decade since the 1930s as well. Middle-income households made less in 2008 than they did in 1999. And the net worth of American households … has also declined compared with sharp gains in every previous decade since data were initially collected in the 1950s.”

The flip side of this is the increased wealth and abundance experienced by America’s richest few over this same period of time. The upper 1 percent of Americans is now worth more than the bottom 90 percent combined. The redistribution of wealth, away from the middle class, was achieved by squeezing American workers, sending massive numbers of jobs overseas, creating the Robber Banker complex and all the while making sure that the rich kept paying lower taxes.

Mr. Branfman shares in vivid detail much of the story of the Robber Bankers and how their unbridled greed has taken our Country to the brink of economic ruin. How they traded their own economic prosperity for the wellbeing of a nation, and of how the incompetence of the federal government let it happen. In his words, “The basic fact that none of our leaders dare say aloud–from CEOs to economists to politicians–is that the U.S. private sector and capitalism itself have failed, as well as the government charged with controlling its worst excesses.” The American people need to hear this truth and contemplate its full meaning.

The Great Recession is the current culmination of a failed test in free-market politics. It is the predictable result of decades of deregulation and lowered taxes on the rich. What we’ve netted is over 30 million Americans without jobs, and a gutted U.S. industry where now the money changers, the makers of NOTHING — the financial sector has amassed over 40 percent of overall corporate profits.

Middle class Americans need to wake up and join together. The path back is through better government — government that again serves The People, and through higher taxes on the rich. Average Americans need to understand that the present tax cut mentality is a poison apple sold by the wealthy to stuff their own coffers.  It was the high top income tax rate that essentially wrote the epitaph for the tyranny of the elite after the Great Depression. It provided the funding needed for the New Deal and created the American middle class. The top rate never dipped below 63% from 1932 until 1982, and the 91% bracket held for most of 1951 to 1963.

But the sad truth is that Ronald Reagan tore the structure down and returned power to the robber barons. Reaganomics was the accelerated beginning of the march to the Great Recession. President Reagan presided over a top rate reduction from 70 percent to 28 percent that shifted power firmly back to the elite. Once back in power, they managed to either get regulations removed or to achieve adequate corruption within the regulatory structures to allow unfettered activity. George W. Bush then came along and reversed the small tax rate increases established under Clinton, drastically skewed government practices to favor business, and accelerated the concentration of wealth into the upper 1% to 2%.

So, today we have history repeating itself. The elite gambled and lost and brought us the Great Depression and now the Great Recession. They presently own the Congress and are ensured their lackeys will provide legislation that looks like reform but is actually continued tribute. The recent healthcare legislation will feed billions to medical insurers and the pharmaceutical companies. And the just passed financial “reform” bill is sure to emerge from reconciliation as a toothless gift to Wall Street.

American government is controlled by the wealthy. They’ve led us to a gutted tax base and a huge debt, and now the solution they propose is the destruction of the government structures that helped to create the American middle class in the first place. Privatization of Social Security is just one example of code talk for “the rich want more money and power.” The programs of the New Deal were essential to the great prosperity that preceded the deception of Reaganomics and the ensuing calamity of the Great Recession. Those same programs, along with an effective government that serves the good of The People, are critical to a new age of prosperity for all Americans.

If Americans want to even have a middle class, they need to understand the need to generate more tax revenue. They also need to not fall prey to the false logic of arguments for flat taxes or movement solely to a value added tax. A system of progressive taxes is the only equitable vehicle of taxation. It not only ensures that citizens pay back to the society based on the benefit they’ve extracted from it, but it also provides the essential balance of power and control of government that’s required to maintain a middle class.

The reforms we need are obviously very easy to espouse and very difficult to achieve. The richest of the rich have seized power and will fight to retain it. They don’t want increased regulation, and they damn sure don’t want higher top tax brackets. If We the People want to retain an American middle class, we need to take back control of our government first. The path back to the power of The People lies on the road to campaign finance reform. We need public campaign financing, preferential voting, term limits and a barring of the lobbyist’s revolving door.

These are the things that all voters should be able to rally behind, regardless of their political philosophy. This is the path back to restoration of American greatness and prosperity for ALL Americans.