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In Tennessee, "stimulus meets New Deal":
In Perry County, a rural county of 7,600 people, 90 miles southwest of Nashville…the unemployment rate had risen to above 25 percent after its biggest plant, the auto parts factory, closed.
Rather than waiting for big projects to be planned and awarded to construction companies, or for tax cuts to trickle through the economy, state officials hit upon a New Deal model of trying to put people directly to work as quickly as possible.
They are using welfare money from the stimulus package to subsidize 300 new jobs across Perry County, with employers ranging from the state Transportation Department to the milkshake place near the high school.
As a result, the June unemployment rate, which does not yet include all the new jobs, dropped to 22.1 percent.
“If I could have done a W.P.A. out there, I would have done a W.P.A. out there,” said Gov. Phil Bredesen of Tennessee, a Democrat, referring to the Works Progress Administration, which employed millions during the Great Depression.
Sounds like the unemployment rate could drop further if the program continues. The effects of these jobs ripple through the whole economy:
Over all, two-thirds of the new jobs are in private sector businesses, which are reimbursed by the state for the salaries of eligible stimulus workers. Some, in retail, might be hard to sustain when the stimulus money runs out in September 2010. Other businesses say the free labor will help them expand, hopefully enough to keep a bigger work force.
The Commodore Hotel Linden, a newly restored 1939 hotel that has brought new life to downtown, has seen an increase in its bookings since it has expanded its staff thanks to the stimulus. And the Armstrong Pie Company expects to be able to keep on the new bakery assistants and drivers it hired with stimulus money, saying the new workers have helped the company triple its pie production and expand its reach through central Tennessee.
Partly, the program only offers temporary relief – but as the article says, some jobs will remain, and hopefully so will the shot of confidence.
Our cities need a new WPA, but so do our rural areas. Hopefully other parts of the country will follow Tennessee’s example in this.
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The WPA and the TVA created a number of ambitious public works projects that people still enjoy today – such as many beautiful dams and lakes and the Blue Ridge Parkway. The TVA alone helped bring an entire region of the country into the 20th century. Is there any chance we could see such forward thinking legislation in this era?
Certainly hope so. And more funding for the arts, as Lance has urged elsewhere.
This is a fascinating Times article, and yeah, it really makes the point that a new WPA is something we need. It’s just the shortest way between two points, right? People need jobs? Give them jobs.
I really assumed, back when Dems first began talking about a stimulus and comparing what was needed to Roosevelt and the New Deal, that a WPA or CCC-type direct employment program would be among the obvious, first things to do.
Thank goodness some people are thinking it up themselves.
Btw, along with the Blue Ridge Pkwy, my university’s Auditorium, where I saw numerous wonderful concerts, performances, readings, etc., and a number of other buildings on campus, were built by the WPA, and they are still going strong.
And as a kid in Indianapolis, I used to walk along sidewalks imprinted with the “WPA 193X) notice. It made me feel good.
Oh, and notice the end of that clipping – with their new employees, small businesses are — expanding! They’re getting MORE busness! More customers, more sales – more employees, still!
And those new employees will have money to spend on OTHER small businesses, who will be able to hire new employees….oh, you get the idea.
If that kinda thing keeps up, they’ll have everybody working soon, and the businesses will keep going with their new customers when the subsidy runs out.
This is how an economy is supposed to work; but it gets quite the monkey wrench thrown into it when instead, businesses send all their work to China and close.
Duh.