Behind the Wall Street Protest

>>How would you put the middle class back to work?<<

1) Even out the distribution of wealth. No matter much you cook the books, you cannot run 80% of the economy on 20% of the wealth. The rich individuals and corporations have hoarded so much that they've stalled the rest of the economy. People who don't have money can't buy things, so, that money needs to get spread around more.

2) Break up the megacorporations. Relocalize production. It's safer in case of natural disasters, less wasteful of fuel, and provides more jobs. Produce local, buy local, use local -- as much as feasible. Only the specialty stuff really needs to be shipped long distance.

3) Staff up the understaffed, overworked places like schools and hospitals. Identify work that needs to be done, and reward people for doing it.

4) Cash is only superior to barter when there's enough cash to go around. You always have your skills. Use barter exchanges to meet the need for skilled labor that's often too expensive to buy with cash.

We don't have a shortage of resources. We just suck at distributing them effectively. A society must meet the basic needs of its members, else they will tear it apart and try to build something that will work better.