Chicago—This morning, as the newest job numbers were released, Stand Up! Chicago and the Chicago Political Economy Group held a phone press briefing on a bold new plan to get Chicagoans back to work. Chicago has one of the highest metropolitan unemployment rates in the country, with more than one in every ten Chicagoans currently unemployed.
Coming just two days before 7,500 Chicagoans converge in the Loop for a mass mobilization to Take Back Chicago, the report introduced a pragmatic approach to creating 40,000 jobs to get the city’s unemployed back to work.
The plan, “Investing in Chicago Communities: A Jobs Fund for a Future That Works” is available for downloading at http://standupchicago.org/files/2011/10/Chicago-Community-Jobs-Plan.pdf.
Under the plan, 40,000 jobs would be created by adding a $.25 per contract speculation fee to be collected from traders who engage in speculation on Chicago’s two main exchanges: the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE). This fee would create $1.4 billion in annual revenue.
“This is a tax whose time has come,” said William Barclay, an adjunct professor at UIC’s Liautaud Graduate School of Business and a board member of the Illinois Finance Authority, who pointed out that the UK and Hong Kong have similar transaction taxes in place.
“We bailed out the financial sector with public funds but are cutting public services for working families,” said Ron P. Baiman, Director of Budget and Policy Analysis at the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability.
“The so-called ‘job creators’ are not creating jobs but rather collecting interest on $1.6 trillion in cash that is not being invested in the real economy,” said Baiman.
“If you play with something that doesn’t belong to you and you break it, you have to pay for it,” said Barclay. “The same investment banks that caused the jobs crisis are now thriving — but they’re not hiring workers. So our jobs plan is looking for these financial institutions — these big gamblers — to pay for what they broke.”
Two unemployed Chicagoans also spoke on the press call.
“I have applied for at least 75 positions in three months,” said Penny Peoples, a Certified Nursing Assistant who is struggling to find work. “The HR directors I’ve been able to speak with tell me there are at least 150 applications sitting on their desk for one position.”
“I have bills piling up. It’s not a matter of which bill to pay – I can’t pay any of them,” said Peoples. “The bankers are coming to town next week to celebrate what the taxpayers’ bailout money has done for them. Where is my bailout and when do I celebrate?”
Alfonso Pulido, who worked as a press operator for a Chicago wax paper company for 13 years, said that he and his wife are now both unemployed and have four young grandchildren living in their home.
“If the economy is bouncing back, I’m not seeing it,” said Pulido. “We need jobs. The big corporations have more than their share of the pie. Enough already!
The Chicago Community Jobs Plan can be downloaded at http://standupchicago.org/files/2011/10/Chicago-Community-Jobs-Plan.pdf.
Filed under: Economy Tagged: | Chicago Community Jobs Plan, Chicago Political Economy Group, Stand Up! Chicago
