And what I fear is that the Great Recession has moved the US towards European levels of structural employment, without any kind of Euro-style social safety net.

FORBES: The Rise in Structural Unemployment in the US Recession

And yet as of now, when structural employment is over 10% (if you count those who were considered to be in the work force just a few months ago), we want to reduce the availability of revenues to the very people we want to be hiring new workers, and who are cash-starved as it is.

FORBES: The Deflation Question

But what of the tax system and the structural obstacles to employment that come with it?

ECONOMIST: Christian Sautter, France��s wary finance minister

For the next 20 years, using flashy names like Fiscal Structural Reform Act, Emergency Employment Measures and Policy Measures of Economic Rebirth, the government cut taxes, increased spending and borrowed money to finance itself.

FORBES: Japan: Land of the Rising Debt

The timing of the deteriorating employment picture suggests that the problem is structural as well as cyclical.

FORBES: How to Start Up Job Creation Again

That said, members remain committed to pursuing structural reforms as not only are some reforms able to provide employment gains in the short-term, they also boost jobs and growth domestically and have positive spillovers via trade and other linkages to help rebalance the global economy.

WHITEHOUSE: The Los Cabos Growth and Jobs Action Plan

By 2015, for instance, the IMF reckons America will have a structural deficit (ie, the deficit that would prevail at full employment) of more than 6% of GDP compared to 4% for the euro area.

ECONOMIST: The economy

In 2009, Yaling Yang, Robert Schug and I conducted structural brain scans on 27 psychopaths whom we had found in temporary-employment agencies in Los Angeles.

WSJ: Neurocriminology: Inside the Criminal Mind

But rather than bemoan the employment impact of machines, the president would do well to address the structural changes that are slowing the economic recovery.

FORBES: Obama, ATMs And Rage Against The Rise Of Machines