private business is needing the growth to really create new jobs in order for the society to succeed but right now we are in a depression and it is going to get worse....it may not or may be just like the 20s and the great depression

I've been unemployed for 22 months. I'm 59. I got my first summer job at 14. Other than when I was getting my education, I worked my entire life. For the past 4 months, I had been seeing a stress counselor at my local One Stop Career Center to help me handle the sheer stress of being out of work for that long. Every time I go to to the center, it's packed with people who are out of work and using the services the center provides to help them find work. A lot of people don't have computer access at home, same for a fax and copy machines. In addition, the center provides updated job listings, career workshops and career counseling, in addition to stress counseling.

As of September 1st, my stress counselor is now working at the center on a volunteer basis only, because the Feds cut 45% of the funds that keep the center running. Two of the 4 career counselors at the center have also been let go.

That the government would cut 45% of the funds for an organization that provides a vital means of helping people obtain gainful employment again DURING A PERIOD OF RECORD UNEMPLOYMENT tells me that, no matter how Washington continues to gives us that same old jobs, jobs, jobs song and dance, in reality, they could really give a crap about the unemployed.

US corporations have been downsizing and outsourcing jobs since the early 1970's. When you call the customer service department for the average US corporation, at least 50% of the time, someone with a heavy middle Eastern accent will answer the call. Sometimes, these reps are 'given' American-sounding names. I guess they think we're too stupid to realize that "Chet" isn't a name the average Middle Eastern parents chose when they're deciding on names for their baby.

When a country routinely outsources jobs decade after decade, that is eventually going to cause a national jobs shortage...which is exactly what we've got now. On Sunday, msnbc.com had a front page, online article about unemployment as it relates to UNDERemployment - namely, that so many people are working part-time, but, who WANT to be working full-time, when companies start hiring again, they will start with increasing the hours of their part-time employees who want full-time work. In a lot of cases, they won't even have to HIRE someone from the street. That's great for the companies, but, WHAT ABOUT US? We still need a JOB!

All the media seems to do is publish articles and news reports that point to the doom and gloom of the unemployed, but, no one talks about solutions to the problem, while Washington continues to spew the jobs, jobs, jobs mantra. WHAT jobs? You mean the jobs you've been sending overseas for the last 40 years?

About 25 miles from where I live, Solyndra, a company that manufactures solar panels, just filed for bankruptcy and locked its' doors. 1,100 people arrived for work last week and were told they no longer have a job. Solyndra received a 535 million dollar loan from the government and had a well-publicized visit from President Obama in May of 2010. Just over one year later, the company has shut its' doors. So, WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE????

It didn't used to be this way. We used to have something called 'job security'. Our grandparents used to be able to graduate from high school on Friday, start working a regular, full-time job on Monday, and, if they just SHOWED UP EVERY DAY, they had every assurance of retiring from the same company 30 or 40 years later. That's a simplistic example, but, that's the way things were. My point is, if someone with not a LICK of college used to be able to not worry about his or her next paycheck, WHAT HAPPENED TO THAT? Why does neither advanced degrees (sometimes MULTIPLE degrees), nor decades of years of service at a company, nor working your ass nearly to the bone for your employer, (if you're lucky enough to HAVE an employer) give the average employee ANY kind of sense of job security anymore?

Most of the jobs I've had during my working lifetime have been union jobs, which I greatly prefer. In general, union jobs pay better, have better benefits AND, (what I like best of all) they force companies not to act like assholes towards their employees. Someone who had a union job used to be admired in the US. Now, most people view union jobs with distain. So, I wonder who managed to change that perception of unions? I'll take a guess - the US corporations.

I'm continuing to try to find employment, but, I'm thoroughly disgusted with Washington. Between Washington and US corporations, the American worker has gotten the royal shaft.

I'm 51 and have worked in retail for years now you would think you could find a job running any store, see I have always figured to be the guy that when you come into a store and you need somthing fast but don't know were to find it! Off the top of my head I would know where it is and show you the item and can ring you up for it and get you on your way fast and happy. but 2 years later no job yet and I have a
Dist. Mager. of security willing to give me a refrance that I have worked for but he says that the health care bill has stoped hiring in its tracks the companies can't predict sales because they don't know what it will cost to grow and hire people with the cost to them for the health care so thus NO JOBS! and NO GROWTH! and start up businesses are gone too. They have killed the one factor in business that tells you that if its a good business to start the predictable cost of business and so companies now buy their stocks back insted of growing their business and they wait for the other shoe to drop and we the unemployed get old and die.
People in Washington should be brought up on charges of treason for what they have done to this country right up to the president. A member of Parliament in England said our present " was a financial illiterate with a charismatic personality " enough said.

The plan seems reasonable, right? Will the big whiny senators and reps do the right thing? We will see!!!!