A new president, new jobs

On this eve of change in America, about the best advice, request, plea I can offer to President Obama is to start his administration by doing everything he can to help create jobs and get people back to work. It's a difficult task, but the most important in fixing the economy and getting everything else back on track.

Green jobs are a great start, and creating and supporting green jobs that pay well and are more than manufacturing jobs are important. America should be leading the world in this area, showing what is possible.

As I, and many more Americans, continue the daily struggle to find a job, the best thing that can lift our spirits is the sight of hope that progress is being made on the job front.

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Letter to the next president

An open letter to the next President of the United States:

Dear Mr. President:

The election will soon be over, and whoever wins, I congratulate for winning a difficult race. Now your real work begins. And as someone who was laid off, I'd like to offer my advice on what you can do as president to help me and the many others who are out of work in this poor economy that is quickly becoming a Recession.

Create jobs. Fast. Put all of your other campaign promises aside for now until you explore every possibility for getting more Americans to work again. Once more people get back to work, the economy will improve and most of your other issues will start to take care of themselves. Consumer spending is down becasue, surprise, people either don't have jobs or are worried about losing their jobs. That leads to more companies cutting jobs because people aren't buying their products. It's a vicious circle. Create jobs and the spiral will stop.

Before being laid off in June, I worked as a journalist at newspapers my entire professional career. I should have seen the end coming and started looking for a job earlier, so now I'm depending on unemployment insurance payments, and five (yes, five) part-time jobs that I currently have to stay afloat. My wife went from part- to full-time at her job, and we worry that her job may also be eliminated. We have a 4-year-old daughter, a mortgage that we're not in default on, and other expenses that make the constant job hunt an urgent goal.

As for where to create jobs, you can help solve a multitude of issues -- reliance on foreign oil, creating renewable energy, creating jobs that pay well -- by going green and having the federal government help finance renewable energy businesses such as solar and wind power. Those kinds of jobs would lead to a long-term solution to America's economy and energy needs, and should help lessen our military need to protect oil fields across the globe. Maybe like the New Deal era, it's time to federally fund energy programs and national infrastructure to bring the energy to where it's needed.

The jobs should be full-time with benefits such as health care. Improving the nation's health care system should be your next priority. It's one of the main reasons, besides a steady paycheck and retirement plan, that I want a full-time job again. I'm slowly making enough money to equal a part-time job with my five part-time jobs that range from a few hours per week to maybe 20 hours of work every few months. But none of them offer benefits because it's easier and cheaper for employers to hire part-timers, or contract for a few months, than to hire them for 40 hours per week.

It has been a long campaign and I'm sure you're tired. But now is the time to get to work and get the country back to work. And if your name isn't Barack, then good luck getting these deals done with Congress. I'll let you know how you're doing when I find a job. Or e-mail me at this blog if you find any jobs I'm qualified for.

Sincerely,

Aaron "The Journalist" Crowe

My story pitch

I have a pitch on Spot.us to write a story about solar power in the Bay Area and why we don't see more solar panels on homes. I want to find out why it costs so much and what companies are doing to bring that cost down.

If you read the previous blog on making the media profitable again, then you have an idea of what Spot.us is doing: Using "crowdfunding," like Barack Obama did in his presidential campaign, to raise a lot of small sums through donations on the Internet.

Ten percent of the money raised for a story goes to an editor for fact checking and the rest goes to the reporter. So for the solar story, the total cost is $1,000 and the editor would get $100 and I'd get the remaining $900. A good way to keep me off the streets. If you can afford a small donation of $10 to $25, then please donate. If not, pass along to someone else who can. It's a great way to support important journalism.