McDonald’s National Hiring Day, Proof of a Terrible Jobs Recovery?

I find myself rather depressed about a main headline on most major news web sites today. McDonald’s hired 50,000 employees in one day. MSNBC had the headline, “McDonald’s hiring day spurs high hopes.” Am I the only person that feels kinda unimpressed on this one? After borrowing 14 trillion dollars, our inspiring moment is not the reopening of major manufacturing plants or the completion of some impressive infrastructure project. No, we celebrate McDonald’s.

As a disclaimer, I do not mean to offend anyone with the following article. I understand that times are bad and for many a job at a fast food joint might be necessary. However, this is actually the point I am trying to make. Our government and corporations have failed to create any good paying jobs in this recovery.

If we want to bring back a healthy housing market and improve our standard of living, we are going to have to aim a little higher here. The argument is that these Mc-jobs are good for those most hurt by the recession. I think manufacturing jobs that pay twice as much would be far more beneficial. However, how can we create these jobs when nobody has closed any loopholes that create incentives for US companies to send our jobs overseas.

One would think that the first step taken before borrowing money from China would have been closing these loopholes. Instead, our politicians were so foolish that they borrowed money from China to buy stuff from China. This resulted in China making money on both the loan interest and massive industrial growth as we gave the money right back to them. I truly think that years from now, this will be viewed as one of either the dumbest or most corrupt actions in our history.

For now, go eat at McDonald’s, the recovery depends on it.