In 1910, Henry VanDyke wrote a book called "The Spirit ofAmerica, " which opened with this sentence: "The Spirit ofAmerica is best known inEurope by one of its qualities— energy. " This has always been true.Americans have always been known for their manic dynamism. Some condemned this ambition as a scrambling after money. Others saw it in loftier terms.But energy has always been the country’s saving feature.
SoAmericans should be especially alert to signs that the country is becoming less vital and assiduous. One of those signs comes to us from the labor market.According to figures from the Organization forEconomicCooperation andDevelopment, the United States has a smaller share of prime age men in the work force than any other G-7 nation. Part of the problem has to do with human capital. MoreAmerican men lack the emotional and professional skills they would need to contribute.According to data from theBureau of Labor Statistics, 35 percent of those without a high school diploma are out of the labor force, compared with less than 10 percent of those with a college degree. Part of the problem has to do with structural changes in the economy. Sectors like government, health care and high-tech have been growing, generating jobs for college grads. Sectors like manufacturing, agriculture and energy have been getting more productive, but they have not been generating more jobs. Instead, companies are using machines or foreign workers. The result is this: There are probably more idle men now than at any time since the GreatDepression, and this time the problem is mostly structural, not cyclical. This is a big problem. It can’t be addressed through the sort of short-term Keynesian stimulus some on the left are still fantasizing about. It can’t be solved by simply reducing the size of government, as some on the right imagine. It will probably require a broad menu of policies attacking the problem all at once: expanding community colleges and online learning; changing the corporate tax code and labor market rules to stimulate investment; adopting German-style labor market practices like apprenticeship programs, wage subsidies and programs that extend benefits to the unemployed for six months as they start small businesses. Reinvigorating the missing fifth—bringing them back into the labor market and using their capabilities—will certainly require money. If this were a smart country, we’d be having a debate about how to shift money from programs that provide comfort and toward programs that spark reinvigoration. But, of course, that’s not what is happening. Discretionary spending, which might be used to instigate dynamism, is declining. Health care spending, which mostly provides comfort to those beyond working years, is expanding.Attempts to take money from health care to open it up for other uses are being crusheD、We’re locking in the nation’s wealth into the Medicare program and closing off any possibility that we might do something significant to reinvigorate the missing fifth. Next time you see a politician demagoguing Medicare, ask this : Should we be using our resources in the manner of a nation in decline or one still committed to stoking the energy of its people and continuing its rise To address the unemployment problem mentioned in this passage, theAmerican government should ______. A、divert more labor force from manufacturing sectors to high-tech sectors B、roll out more programs to enhance the competitive edge of the jobless C、do nothing but wait for the return of business cycle D、provide more unemployment pension to the jobless
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