Last week was the deadline for the Congressional super committee to take suggestions on how to trim the deficit. Much of what members heard boiled down to a familiar debate – does shrinking the government grow the economy? Tennesseans on both sides of that argument are looking for work.
Michael Fousse left his job at Dell about two years ago. He says he’s lucky his house was already paid off, because since then he’s looked into lots of leads, and gotten to the point of handing in a resume about 50 times, but found no work. Fousse figures too much regulation is raising the cost of business.
“What I think the government should do is get out of the way of businesses – let businesses thrive. If a business is going to do well, let it do well. They’ll hire more people if they do well. If you tax them less they’ll have more money to create jobs.”
Others argue companies have no reason to hire when there’s little demand, because customers are scared and would rather save money than spend it. That view contends shrinking government would only weaken demand further.
“They’re talking about cutting government jobs too, and I think that’s stupid.”
Aaron Hester lost his job cooking barbecue about six months ago. The father of two doubts reining government in would actually help the broader employment picture.
“I don’t see it happening at all. It’s all about who you know around here nowadays. It ain’t like it was 20 years ago when you could just walk up and shake somebody’s hand. It ain’t like that no more.”
Both Hester and Fousse were among the nearly three thousand applying for temporary warehouse jobs in Lebanon.
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