My understanding of economics is definitely dumbed down due to my lack of motivation to take much notice in the frightfully boring core units which i was forced to study in university. My major in Political Economy can be summed up by the fact that i know that the teacher who says "Bueller. Bueller. Bueller" in the movie is trying to teach them about the Hawley Smoot Tariff when the students are all falling asleep on him. This tariff was, in fact, entirely counter productive and the large taxes applied to imported goods actually may have made the Great Depression even worse!
Nonetheless, i did pass every subject in my major and i believe that it has helped me to work something out with the American economy. I believe that there is a huge efficiency problem in America. Productivity and efficiency is easy enough to bluff. You rush around, tell people how busy you are and ensure your superior knows all about the inept subordinate who is making your job even harder. Just ask George Costanza. But when it gets to the number crunching it is a bit easier to see where money and resources are being wasted.
I feel that America want to give the impression that they are being efficient. Examples i have seen is the complete lack of respect given to people applying for jobs and going to interviews. I have been to plenty but they all have resulted in me being clumped in with other people or the interviewee admitting that my resume has not even been read. There is nothing efficient about interviewing twelve people at a time. It just increases the likelihood that you are getting the wrong, incorrect or useless information and, hence, will not hire the right person. By doing this, a manager probably thinks that the are saving time but, in the long run, it will cause a loss of time, money and resources. And probably a bad employee.
Also, i have noticed that some government offices close at 3pm each day and on Wednesday's closes at noon. This leads to queues. Lots of people simply like waiting in queues and use it as a way to pass the time. However, with the hours stunted and shortened, i found the employees to be quite on the ball, fast and easy to deal with. They knew that they had to make up the time when the office was not open. The government simply cannot afford the wages and this is why the office has strange hours. But it does save cash!
On the flip side, car dealerships, food stores and just about any other business seem to pride themselves on their accessibility and availability. In short, they are almost always open! Who is going to buy a car at 7am? Or at 8pm on a Sunday for that matter?? All this is doing is driving profits lower, increasing expenses for wages, power, supplies and decreasing their productivity.
Youth unemployment seems to be a serious issue which i can tie in to an aging workforce. People do not seem to have the desire, or wealth, to retire and as a result work for too long. Thus keeping a younger prospect out of a job. I mean, even some guys play baseball until they are in their late thirties! This is partly due to an inefficient retirement plan (401K) and also the wage rate. There is no doubt that the rich have no problem in retiring but, when you live week to week given the pittance you are paid, there is really not much room to scrimp and save for retirement. Another thing i think which would help would be to raise the minimum wage around the country. The multiplier effect would possibly result in much of this "extra" wage being put back into the economy but would also allow for more saving. Which is never, ever a bad thing.
Again, my knowledge of economics is far from exceptional and, naturally, there are many more issues that could be raised which would play a part. If you think you are the love child of Ben Bernanke and Janet Yellen, or believe in Hockeynomics, rather than attempt to rip me and this piece to shreds, please just see it as satire. But in my sleep deprived, queasy state, I do believe that this small solution would probably save the world.
And employing these tactics would create what? Anyone? Anyone? A stronger. A stronger what? A stronger economy.
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