As I listened to President Obama’s State of the Union Address and his bold meeting with the Republican Caucus a few days later, I found myself silently thinking, “Jobs, jobs, jobs. We need more jobs.” I sounded like the folks who chanted “Drill” “Drill” “Drill” at the Republican Convention.

There is now talk about a high-speed rail coming to California, the long hiatus of building new nuclear power plants may be coming to an end, banks may soon be making more small business loans, and tax incentives for hiring new workers and even a mention about a break for giving wage increases.

In my 35 years at the trade I’ve never seen things as slow as they are right now, nor had I seen things as busy, on a national level, than say a few years ago. Did we over-build? Did we concentrate on using cheap labor to build a few million mini-mansions no one can afford to own now? Did we nurture the middle class or just concentrate on Wall Street in the hope the “trickle-down” effect would actually work?

As we slowly climb out of this hole we find ourselves, I ask myself “Will we learn from the mistakes we made during the boom?” I hope so.

Some suggestions from the cheap seats:

Eliminate the possibility of illegal aliens taking jobs that legal residents and citizens need. Construction jobs should never be considered on the same level as season fruit picking.

Stop subcontracting abuse. You know what I mean: contractors who “sub” to a group of workers for the sole purpose of avoiding workers’ compensation and tax liability. This is unethical and unfair to legitimate builders, and masks the exploitation of illegal labor.

Come up with some tax incentive for using materials manufactured locally. Save energy and stimulate manufacturing.

These are my suggestions for building a stronger middle class as the work returns. What are yours?