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“…Such nations, however, are so miserably poor that, from mere want, they are frequently reduced, or, at least, think themselves reduced, to the necessity sometimes of directly destroying, and sometimes of abandoning their infants, their old people, and those afflicted with lingering diseases, to perish with hunger, or to be devoured by wild beasts. ” – Adam Smith, ‘Wealth of Nations‘ 1776 (emphasis mine)
The Proposal
I recently asked a fairly right leaning coworker of mine what he thought about the idea of a National Jobs Guarantee in the U.S. I specifically wanted to ask a CONservative their opinion about a jobs guarantee because I believe the idea should be fairly appealing to CONservatives/NeoLiberals and progressives alike. I will post various links to documentation about what a National Jobs Guarantee would look like at the end of this post, but for now, here are the highlights of such a program:
As employer of last resort, the Govt will guarantee a job to everyone who wants to work.
The wage paid by the Govt will set and maintain the minimum living wage in the U.S.
Folks who are able to work and refuse to participate in the Govt jobs program and are not otherwise employed will lose access to various govt assistance until such time as they find employment in the private sector or join the Govt jobs program. [CONservatives should have a raging hard on over this]
And obviously, the creation of millions of jobs. A nationwide childcare program, the training of doctors and nurses to care for our aging population, and training for all types of needed skills could be part of a Natl Jobs Guarantee.
**Control of the program would be divided between local, state and Federal Govt with a basic minimum level of requirements from the Federal Govt and wide flexibility to the states and cities as long as those minimum requirements are met. ** [Also should give CONservatives a warm and fuzzy]
The Response
When I described this to my right leaning coworker he did exactly what I expected he would do….he immediately dismissed the idea outright. However, to his credit, once I began to explain in detail and particularly when I highlighted the fact that the Jobs Guarantee would essentially act as the qualifying criteria for access to the Welfare State, he warmed to the proposal considerably. By the time we were done he pretty much agreed that a National Jobs Guarantee was a solid idea and entirely superior to our current state of rampant unemployment and underemployment with what little jobs that are being created having NO semblance of an adequate living wage.
All of this was pretty much what I expected. Because a Jobs Guarantee just plain makes sense. And it is one of those rare bipartisany proposals that would actually work to NOT screw the working class for a change.
Going Forward
Q. So how about a National Jobs Guarantee? And more importantly, why aren’t we hearing ANY such proposal coming from the Dimocrats or the Rethugs?
A. Because Dimocrats and Rethugs are essentially CONservative/NeoLiberal criminals. They have NO intention of ever proposing, much less passing an idea as fair, as workable and as good for the working class as a National Jobs Guarantee would be.
You may wonder why I began this post with a quote from Adam Smith, the so called ’father of modern capitalism’ and Super Hero to many CONservatives and NeoLiberals alike. Well, like so much that makes up the doctrine and rhetoric of CONservative/NeoLiberal ideals; most of what they have to say about Adam Smith and his signature work is complete rubbish. For instance, you will never hear a rightwinger mention; let alone expound upon the above quote from the introduction to Smith’s classic work. To do so would require thought, particularly to the obvious belief by Smith that to abandon the old, the young, and the sick to die of hunger, neglect, and untreated disease was a bad thing, something allowed to happen only in a society of savages.
To reference the quote from Adam Smith…..We are NOT reduced to the kind of low wage, failing economy we currently have. We HAVE THE MEANS to institute a National Jobs Guarantee today, tomorrow, next year, 5o years from now and on and on into infinity.
The Deficit is a NON ISSUE as relates to our ability to provide jobs, health care, and humanitarian living standards to ALL citizens of the U.S.
In closing, CONservatives and NeoLiberals love to talk about and to completely misrepresent Adam Smith’s phrase ‘the invisible hand’. To CONservatives this is the magic fairy that makes it ok for corporations, banks, and any other type of business or industry to operate without any regulation whatsoever. [Note: CONservatives conveniently never mention the several times Smith warns that private enterprise MUST be regulated and kept in check, as the nature of joint stock companies (corporations) are to put profit over ALL else, with no regard to a given society]. I would suggest to the ‘invisible hand’ fairies simply to wait until about 5 to 7 years after the JOBS Act Free Fire Securities Fraud Act has taken full effect. After the job losses, losses in private retirement accounts and overall contraction of the economy that will surely take place…..no one will have to look very far to find out where the ‘invisible hand’ is.
In reality, CONservatives and NeoLiberals exist to serve and represent the wishes and the will of the wealthy and powerful. Those wishes quite simply are for the rich and powerful to remain rich and powerful, regardless of how much undue hardship and suffering is endured by the poor and working class folks of society.
They don’t give a damn whether you or I have a job or not, let alone a job at a living wage. A very important part of the con game is to keep the working class earning just enough to where we will not take the necessary steps at the voting booths to bring about real and lasting change.
In the meantime, the response of the ruling elite is the familiar “Screw YOU! I got mine!” Out of work? Screw YOU! I got mine! Can’t afford to take your kid to the doctor? Screw YOU! I got mine! Your boss making you work overtime and NOT paying you for it? Screw YOU! I got mine! Work as many hours as the boss will give you and still qualify for food stamps? Guess what? We’re cutting them! ha! Screw YOU! I got mine!
And as I’ve expressed many times before; it is my sincerest belief that if we continue to play in the rigged UniParty system, NOTHING will change. 3rd party progressive now please!
Please Sign the Jobs Guarantee Petition!
* a few articles from FDL and billyblog on a National Jobs Guarantee
http://my.firedoglake.com/letsgetitdone/2012/01/05/the-job-guarantee-and-the-mmt-core-part-one/
18 Comments
Signed and recommended; fwiw, signing page just kept progress of signing (signing) going on and on until I refreshed page.
Signed, rec’d.
Not that it will make much of an impact.
Sounds reasonable until there seems to be vagueness on how much the pay will be.
I am for paying a decent enough wage, such that it becomes a great equalizer. Caterpiller Corporation workers recently went out on strike because their starting wages have been bargained downwards to something around 14 dollars an hour. Private enterprise is basically saying to America, “We can lower your wages because in this depression, we can get away with it.” Government should step up and set a living wage at 17 dollars an hour with health insurance and Social Security FICA too. This will raise the floor for everyone’s wages. The only bad part about doing this is that it lets the 1% appear to be doing something reasonable, when all it is doing is preventing the societal tipping point when the 1% lose ALL of their advantages at once.
A very modest, conservative(in the original sense of the word), proposal that makes sense. it could even preserve the capitalist system for awhile, anyway. Unfortunately, those who have the most to lose, the top 1%, will ignore it or even fight it because they are driven by the insatiable capitalist goal of more profits(for themselves) faster and the devil take the hindmost.
By the time some of them see the writing on the wall and embrace something like this it will be too late for them, for they have made sure no FDR is waiting in the wings to save them from themselves this time around.
Ubetchaiam,
Thanks so much for signing, and for stopping by.
walkinboots,
I know the feeling, I sometimes think petitions are a waste of time, then again, it can’t hurt!
thanks for stopping by
Right on, all it would really accomplish is making up (a bit) some of the profit the wealthy and powerful have siphoned off and stolen from working folks over the years. But at least it’s something
as usual, in firm agreement with you Ohio Barbarian!
SG, signed the petition. But this:
“Folks who are able to work and refuse to participate in the Govt jobs program and are not otherwise employed will lose access to various govt assistance until such time as they find employment in the private sector or join the Govt jobs program. [CONservatives should have a raging hard on over this]”
is not the MMT view. MMT economists advocate the JG as an add-on to other programs. It would not replace UE insurance, nor would those who don’t enroll not be entitled to food stamps or other assistance programs. MMT doesn’t see the JG as workfare and doesn’t want to turn it into that because that would please the rightists. To pass it, MMT would much rather have a solid wall of progressives, and enough centrists to get it through.
Details are in Randy Wray’s series with lots and lots of discussion:
http://neweconomicperspectives.org/p/modern-monetary-theory-primer.html
See posts 42-48 and the response blogs to each.
Yes, I was just going to comment on that bit as well. We all know damn well that if the troglodytes in congress got a hold of something like this they’d try to turn it into a “work for the dole” deal. After all, they think unemployed people are Cadillac owners with a preference for leisure. As to “access to the welfare state,” what a joke. We already have the stingiest, most demeaning welfare system in the galaxy. It may surprise most people, but even at the current paltry minimum wage a person could earn 4-5x as much as one could get on TANF if one can jump through all the hoops to get on it. Given that, there is no point to applying such coercive measures to get participation in JG. If someone has exhausted every effort in trying to become re-employed in their chosen field they’ll opt for JG instead of “welfare,” because it simply isn’t a legitimate option. I, for one, will not cater to the prejudices of conservatives or the self-serving glad handing of the “third way” types. They are ignorant and cruel, and legislate accordingly.
Yeah. That’s what they are doing to the Roma in parts of Europe. That works out to be forced work camps which precede the extermination camps.
I wrote about the violation of human rights entailed in forced labor here:
http://my.firedoglake.com/tomthumb/2012/01/27/georgia-works-and-labor-camps-in-hungary-both-reinforce-underclass-status-for-the-unemployed/
This guaranteed work program by the Chicago Economic Group (link below) offers 18 dollars an hour and the right to bargain for workplace conditions. These jobs do not support the private sector directly by providing free labor, but supply demand to the economy by guaranteeing income to formerly unemployed persons in exchange for their joining the public workforce.
http://www.cpegonline.org/reports/jobs.pdf
*Sign the Petition* gets near zero response in DC – but why not
I agree with the thought, although currently we could have the equivalent under current law if we wanted to fund it – the job guarantee is a simpler approach but it is “change” and under Obama “change” is hard.
As an aside – “forced work camps which precede the extermination camps” is not the same as a work requirement for benefits if you are able (the 1996 welfare reform). The job guarantee forces nothing, just as the availability of welfare forces nothing.
As to a petition to promote the idea, I find more satisfying, and hopefully more effective, a simple visit to the Congressman/Senator’s office.
Yes letsgetitdone, I should have made that clearer that the tying of employment (for folks who are able to work) in with qualifying for certain Govt benefits has NOTHING to do with MMT. I apologize for not making that clearer in the first place.
That is simply my opinion of how something like the Jobs Guarantee could be made to appeal to a broad sweep of the electorate.
Personally, I would much rather the Jobs Guarantee be promoted and implemented just the way I have read about it in many of your posts and also posts by Bill Mitchell.
Thanks for stopping by.
I like the idea of such a jobs program though it may not be the optimal solution. I don;t like tying benefits to participation. That inevitably leads to people falling through the cracks. I’m not going to sign the petition though because I just came home to an overflowing spam folder and each petition I sign gets my email sold to more spammers. I didn’t mind signing petitions online before but my email address has been abused far too many times now.
Thanks SG, I think the MMT format can make it attractive. That is, if it’s embedded in a proposal featuring a full payroll tax cut, State Revenue sharing, real banking reform and the JG, then I think that can be sold to a majority and that’s what we need to do.
I’m not interested in getting the JG passed by acclamation, by giving it oppressive features that will make Virginia Foxx like it. I’m more interested in using those proposals to kick her, the tea party people, the blue dogs, and Wall Street “centrists” to the curb.
Me too. But I did sign the petition, anyway.