op ed

8.8 million jobs have been lost in the last two years in the United States. National unemployment figures rose this past week to 6%.

Hello? Is anybody in Washington paying attention?

I'm not the president or a presidential candidate (and I don't play one on television) but it seems to me to create new jobs, this country needs to create new industries. A tax cut to maintain the current status quo is just not going to change anything. If the demand for existing products isn't there now, why should the demand increase with a tax cut? How many new cars and television sets can any one person buy? Americans just can't keep buying more of what we already have. We've got to get a move on.

How do we get moving?

There is an entirely new industry this country could develop and export world wide. It's one that's been sitting under our noses since the 1970's. Just about every dis-incentive imaginable has been put in the way to prevent it from emerging, growing, and creating new jobs. It's a no-brainer friends. It's the alternative energy industry.

Take just one form: solar energy. To get solar energy into mainstream use it needs research and development: jobs for designers and engineers. New ideas need the manufacturing sector to see those designs become reality: jobs in assembly and production. Products need to reach wholesale and retail outlets: jobs in the transportation sector for shipping and delivery. Units need to be installed: projects for contractors who in turn give jobs to electrical and construction workers. New products need to be marketed: jobs in advertising and more jobs for the outlets that carry those ads.

Small businesses will need to develop to handle maintenance contracts. New architecture and design standards will need to be invented to incorporate the new technology. Colleges, schools and universities will need classes and teachers to educate how the technology can be utilized. Banks will need to provide loans to help businesses and homeowners to stretch out the costs of purchase and installation. Entire new businesses will be needed just to deal with retrofitting existing buildings and homes.

When new industries emerge, inventors and entrepreneurs find new ways to exploit the new technology. It's American capitalism at its finest. Commonly used products evolve, reinvented as new and improved. Ingenuity imagines new demand for solar cell phone chargers, portable solar radios and televisions, solar powered picnic coolers that stay cool, travel mugs that stay warm. Go wild, and why not - a mailbox in winter could have a solar de-icer, a chilly morning car could have a solar seat warmer. The possibilities are endless because so little has yet to be imagined, invented, and created.

We need jobs. We need new jobs. And a tax cut to hang on to old jobs that no longer exist just isn't going to cut it. We need to move forward and quit standing still.

In the 1700's, we had wood to heat our homes. The 1800's gave us coal as the fuel of choice. The 1900's were the boom of the oil industry. It's the 2000's now and it's time we had new energy that matched our new century.

So let's skip the tax cut and put that money into creating a new industry. Let's invest in our future and let's do it today. Oil is so yesterday.

Besides, we need the jobs.