If you’re anything like me, you’re getting tired of politics. This has been a disturbing year, especially given all the stalemates and political immaturity that’s running rampant in Washington. Additionally, if you’re anything like me, you’re getting tired of protests without a point. It’s time that our government focus on the important things like creating jobs for Americans, so as we embark upon a new year I thought I’d lay out an idea for you. I call it my proposal for the People’s (Tech) Bailout.
The tech industry has jobs, which is confounding because reports estimate there are as many as 10 million people in the US without jobs. In the tech industry, as many people have called it, its 1999 all over again. I’ve seen estimates ranging from 150,000 tech jobs added per year, to some people stating there are as many as 3 million open jobs in the US, many of which are in tech. The simple explanation is that most of the people who are out of work are not qualified with the necessary skills to be applied to the open jobs, but that’s a problem we can solve if we put our minds to it!
My solution is a simple one; training and placement. I’m typically not a fan of government stepping in and spending money, but in this situation I have an idea that would require them to step in, and they would actually make money while creating jobs, and revenue, all at the same time.
Step 1: For the millions of people who are out of work and are actively looking for work, the government will establish a payment of $1,000 per prospective employee for training.
Step 2: An independent start-up company would be established to train and place these people, using the $1,000 payment per prospective employee. The $1,000 should be enough to take an educated person, and train them in specific jobs that are available, especially if the companies who have these open jobs are incentivized to provide information and training materials in order to get these people up and running.
Step 3: The independent start-up would use those payments as revenue to pay for staff and resources to get these people trained over a 3-month period to be capable of entering into these companies and filling open jobs. The requirements would be that the jobs be U.S. based, and that the prospective employees be U.S. citizens, in order to take advantage of the program.
Step 4: When these jobs are filled by the prospective employees, they will have a portion of their wages garnished over a 3 month period to repay the training fee, plus a 100% mark-up (an additional $1,000, for a total of $2,000). This money would be used to repay the government loan, and the government and the independent start-up would split the additional fees. In this manner, the government would be repaid their outlay of funds, the start-up would create training jobs and put some percentage of people to work, and we would have successfully retrained millions of people who want to work, and placed them in positions where they can work.
I know this sounds too easy, which is why the government will probably never pursue it, so I’m putting it out here for all of you to read and respond to. The government would have the cash to kick-start this kind of a program, but anyone with enough funds could honestly make it happen. It’s a revenue driver, and a guaranteed one at that.
What do you think? Is 2012 the year that someone makes this kind of thing work? If you’re an Occupy person or any other protester, and you see an idea like this, then you should be incentivized to at least react. Otherwise, you have no right to gather and protest for the sake of protesting.
Consider this idea my entrepreneurial Christmas gift. Happy holidays everyone!