[A Mini Essay instead of a Blog]

I have a dream far less grandiose than that of Martin Luther King. Mine is not based on a religious belief. You may find it intriguing, so I’m going to tell you what it is. Before doing so though I want you to understand that I do not have any falsely disguised wish to run for the presidency of our cantankerous nation. But I do want to use that often sought career goal as a tool to make my point.

Imagine for this exercise that I am the President and I refuse to live in The White House. Instead I order [I am Commander-In-Chief, remember] that the military deliver to the lawn of The White House a gigantic army tent. I set up my office and living quarters in that tent, with phones, computers, the whole works. The White House I turn into a halfway house for Homeless Veterans. [We’ll need more space; it’s not quite big enough for the job.]

With my headquarters now in place, I focus on the highest priority of the United States: getting All Americans working who want to work. I inform the rest of the world that all our international relations will for the moment be put on hold so we can achieve our goal of full employment.

I suggest to all American multi-national Corporations that they devise individual plans to hire, train, and put to work unemployed Americans. I suggest they literally “Share” their present work with at least five percent more workers and reduce the work of each present employee by five percent. For this collaboration, I award an appropriate corporate tax incentive, and offer financial assistance to each corporation if cash reserves and cash flow are a problem.

All the fat cat corporations with massive cash reserves will be required to invest their own money into the scheme. They can take it out of their accumulated profits and the multi-billion dollar bonuses they’ve paid themselves over the past five years of the recession, while millions of Americans have languished. Through this, I will never prevent foreign workers from working for us, but will allow it only after we have trained and placed all our own people capable of doing the work offered them.

I am seriously not applying for the job, so don’t plead for me to change my mind. I give you the concept free and clear so you can use it to elect someone else. If I had the job, however: upon our working through the multitude of complexities of the plan and satisfactorily accomplishing it, I would then move out of the tent and into The White House. I bet it’s a nice place to live.