Seeing how this recession was a fiasco in how it had taken the government totally by surprise, it would seem to make sense that we have a national employment strategy ahead of any recession, ready to be implemented at a moment's notice.
When a governement is taken by surprise, it has no clear policy and so just reacts on a knee-jerk reaction, as we'd seen with the autoworkers this recession.
One possible strategy for a future recession I could see would be this:
Stage 1: Lower interest rates right down to 0% if necessary to counter deflation. No other strategy ought to be used at that stage.
Stage 2: If and when stage 1 is exhaused and we are still suffering from deflation, then print however much money is necessary to counter the deflation (no more, no less), and use it to either:
a. pay off the federal debp, thus putting money into the economy while preparing for the next boom simultaneously.
b. set up a federal global ethical mutual stock fund. This would put money into the economy while buying up stocks for the federal government, thus putting it in a perfect position to then sell the stocks when the boom returns, as a means of taking that moeny back out of the economy to fight inflation later. Since this woudl be an ethical fund, we could be sure that it would not be promoting any arms industry, casinos, tobacco, alcohol, etc. And since it would be global, it could exploit global opportunities too while still putting more Canadian dollars into the world economy.
c. provide education vouchers for the unemployed during the course of the recession so that, instead of wasting their time looking for jobs that don't exist, they could upgrade their skills instead, thus preparing for the upcoming boom when skilled worker shortages are likely to arise. Or alternatively, just make any charitable contribution to public trade and professional schools tax-deductible.
One thing all these would have in comon is that they could fight deflation while laying the groundork for the fight against inflation at the same time, thus being forward-looking rather than short-term as was the case with the auto sector bail out.
Also, whether in times of recession or inflation, I'd support eliminating minimum wage so that it doesn't risk pricing unskilled workers out fo the market unfairly. After all, a low wage is still better than nothing, and the govenrment's job should be to remove, not create, barriers to employment.
Granted, this could raise worries about abuse or exploitation of workers. One solution could be to give workers voting rights in elections for the board of directors, or allowing people to apply for social assistance even while working,with social services simply topping up their salary . This way, they can still keep working ad gaining work experience and references, etc. while still getting what they need. Or alternatively, make contributions to charities to the poor tax deductible.
Lowering income taxes in a recession culd be beneficial too by putting more spending money in people's pockets, though of course that can be done only when the federal government has no debts.
When a governement is taken by surprise, it has no clear policy and so just reacts on a knee-jerk reaction, as we'd seen with the autoworkers this recession.
One possible strategy for a future recession I could see would be this:
Stage 1: Lower interest rates right down to 0% if necessary to counter deflation. No other strategy ought to be used at that stage.
Stage 2: If and when stage 1 is exhaused and we are still suffering from deflation, then print however much money is necessary to counter the deflation (no more, no less), and use it to either:
a. pay off the federal debp, thus putting money into the economy while preparing for the next boom simultaneously.
b. set up a federal global ethical mutual stock fund. This would put money into the economy while buying up stocks for the federal government, thus putting it in a perfect position to then sell the stocks when the boom returns, as a means of taking that moeny back out of the economy to fight inflation later. Since this woudl be an ethical fund, we could be sure that it would not be promoting any arms industry, casinos, tobacco, alcohol, etc. And since it would be global, it could exploit global opportunities too while still putting more Canadian dollars into the world economy.
c. provide education vouchers for the unemployed during the course of the recession so that, instead of wasting their time looking for jobs that don't exist, they could upgrade their skills instead, thus preparing for the upcoming boom when skilled worker shortages are likely to arise. Or alternatively, just make any charitable contribution to public trade and professional schools tax-deductible.
One thing all these would have in comon is that they could fight deflation while laying the groundork for the fight against inflation at the same time, thus being forward-looking rather than short-term as was the case with the auto sector bail out.
Also, whether in times of recession or inflation, I'd support eliminating minimum wage so that it doesn't risk pricing unskilled workers out fo the market unfairly. After all, a low wage is still better than nothing, and the govenrment's job should be to remove, not create, barriers to employment.
Granted, this could raise worries about abuse or exploitation of workers. One solution could be to give workers voting rights in elections for the board of directors, or allowing people to apply for social assistance even while working,with social services simply topping up their salary . This way, they can still keep working ad gaining work experience and references, etc. while still getting what they need. Or alternatively, make contributions to charities to the poor tax deductible.
Lowering income taxes in a recession culd be beneficial too by putting more spending money in people's pockets, though of course that can be done only when the federal government has no debts.
