The big job boosters that everyone's missing.

• Author: Waldman, Amy
• Position: Job growth

I have this fantasy. Pat Buchanan, Ted Kennedy, and my father are having dinner together. My dad's the odd man out, so to speak. Buchanan and Kennedy are both Irish Catholic politicians; he is a Jewish Canadian engineer, with a small business testing construction parts for safety. Despite some unpleasant rhetorical tendencies on Buchanan's part, they all get along well. They're around the same age; they have healthy appetites for food and humor; and they like to talk politics. They're mulling over an issue weighing heavily on the country: how to create more good jobs and more job security. And since it's my fantasy, my father is the one giving the advice.

Buchanan, of course, lays a good deal of the blame at the feet of immigrants who take American jobs and argues that's reason enough to exclude them. Indeed, more than a few of my father's 50-some employees are immigrants--primarily from India and Iran. But he didn't hire them to skimp on wages. He employed them because they have engineering skills hard to find among American workers. It's not who we let in, my father tells Buchanan. It's that we've let our education and training capacity go to seed.

Then he turns to the senator from Massachusetts. Kennedy has recently proposed tax breaks for "responsible" corporations that avoid layoffs and treat workers well. My dad happens to be a Democrat, but he thinks this is crazy. He patiently explains to Kennedy that this noble scheme would be an enforcement nightmare. How, for example, would the government determine whether an employee was laid off because of greed or economic necessity? What he thinks is, "That's what you get from someone who's never worked in business."

It's not just Kennedy and Buchanan who are off-base on remedies for these vexing economic problems. The whole country seems at a loss. Robert Rubin snipes at Robert Reich's support for designating responsible corporations--but affirms the status quo by not offering solutions of his own. Clinton cautiously hovers between Rubin and Reich; Most Republicans either deny the problem or give it campaign lip service. After an epic series on downsizing, The New York Times offers a formulaic round-up of solutions, from lowering CEO pay to government regulation. After disparaging the Senate Democrats' plan, The New Republic goes out on a limb to call for "training," "social spending," and "improving ... education."

It's not that these solutions aren't worthy, and in some cases wise--especially beefing up education. But considering the total IQ being applied, they are surprisingly limited. Despite the sturm and drang of major corporate layoffs, for example, most Americans do not work for big companies; only 14,500 American companies have more than 500 workers. Even more important, most new jobs are created by small and new businesses.

And creating new jobs is the surest path to improved economic conditions for all working Americans. Of course, Congress can't snap its fingers and make this happen. But government policies can encourage job creation--or thwart it. In several crucial ways, our policies are doing the latter.

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