Dan Dimicco is the former CEO of Nucor, America’s largest steel producer. Having helped Nucor survive and indeed grow during the recent recession, he now hopes to do the same for the whole nation. In his new book, American Made, Dimicco calls on lawmakers to implement an ambitious industrial policy that, he claims, would create 30 million jobs in the next 10 years.
In clear, simple language Dimicco presents the complex issues facing the American economy: “Today’s crisis is a massive jobs deficit and an economy ill-equipped to generate the jobs the country needs. Long term, we have a debt crisis, too. … No jobs means no economic growth; no economic growth means no tax revenue for government services.” More than 20 million Americans are unemployed or underemployed, he notes, and when one includes those working part-time and those who have stopped looking for work, our unemployment rate is 13.1%. To fix all this and put America back on the path to economic prosperity, he says, in equally straightforward language, we must revitalize our manufacturing sector, punish countries that manipulate their currency, develop our domestic energy supply, and spend a great deal—$3.6 trillion—tidying up our infrastructure.
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