Three Fallacies In President Obama's National Jobs Recovery Logic

President Obama has declared his final two years in office will use ‘the Edison method’ of invention to create economic growth and jobs in the United States. We like Thomas Edison’s inventive application of science to create the light bulb of course yet believe there are several problems with applying that 19th century business model to the United States today in the 21st century. Two years is hardly sufficient time to invent and broadly apply technology to create 300,000 jobs per month starting in February 2011.

http://nationaljournal.com/whitehouse/ge-s-immelt-to-head-obama-s-new-jobs-and-competitiveness-board-20110121

There are three primary fallacies in the President’s job recovery theory I shall briefly outline. The most likely areas for new technology jobs creation will be disregarded by the President and Congress. Implicitly I describe those areas elementally in describing the fallcies in the Presidential job creation logic.

One; The national economy is a leaky vessel with jobs outsourced, productivity outsourced and patents held by global corporations with millions of illegal aliens arriving to take non-outsourceable jobs. Simply adding speed to keep a leaky boat from sinking will not necessarily be more effective than patching the leaks

Two; Areas of the economy that could be patched with bi-partisan support in the Congress such as building a three layer berm and ditch control barrier zone on the Mexican border to prevent illegal alien input, and a nation-wide infrastructure along freeway corridor starting around major cities to install power lines for electric car charging in order to offset the rise of foreign gasoline prices that also stall the economy; are being neglected. Hence the economy has two large built in governors on efforts for full national full employment and prosperity.

Three; The U.S. Patent system needs reform so inventors other than the rich (the majority) find it profitable to invent something. With the cost of patents at 5 applications for $3000 dollars plus patent searches and patent defenses the cost is way too high for the majority of inventors today who might tend to be very poor. The trickle up effect is definitely in play in the patents field with corporations having every possible advantage for soaking up inventions by the poor.

If an inventor does succeed in keeping security in this leaky era and obtain a patent, then he faces the problem of actually finding a cost competitive way to produce and market the product. Increasingly cheap offshore production such as in China has become the norm. Thomas Edison had no problem in finding the best production facilities in the world in the United States. He also held 1093 patents as inventor and President of his own corporation. Few Americans or corporations exist in such a state today. One might think of Steve Jobs (not an Edison class inventor by any means) as a vague echo of the American inventor-entrepreneur-C.E.O.’s of the past.