In his column “Criminal past makes job search wearisome work”, Jeff Hawkes describes the plight of a young father who is seeking employment and has endeavored to turn around his life after a post-high school violation of the law that resulted in a month in prison.
WATCHDOG: Hawkes continues in his important role as conscience to the community by bringing to our attention and sensitizing us to the needs and aspirations of others.
The current unemployment rate of minimally 10% (probably closer to 15% if one counts those who have given up on the job market) has a tragic effect on the lives of millions and wastes human and capital resources.
Noble Award winner and teacher of Economics to two generations of Americans through his text books, Professor Paul Samuelson recently died at 94. Perhaps we all need a refresher course in Samuelson and John Maynard Keynes. Both would have urged more federal stimulus given the state of our economy in order to get people back to work and grow Gross Domestic Product.
Deficits can be paid off. Wasted resources and lives are lost forever.
A wag of the tail for Hawkes! And may Samuelsons’s memory “be for a blessing.”
