Market Mad House

In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. Friedrich Nietzsche

Jobs Guarantee

Politics

The Jobs Guarantee is a Lie

If it were implemented, the jobs guarantee would require government to lie its’ recipients, taxpayers, and voters. Recipients will be told they have a “job,” politicians will tell taxpayers and voters “it’s a job not welfare.”

I imagine an American jobs guarantee will work the same way. For example, it could force your public library to hire several people to shelve books. When they shelve all the books, the guarantee workers will sit around the library reading or playing games on the computers.

Furthermore, your city hall will have to hire more administrative workers under the guarantee. The guarantee workers will spend their days doing things like making copies, delivering mail, making coffee, filing paperwork, or playing League of Legends on a government computer.

I imagine that many government agencies will set up something like the New York Public Schools’ notorious rubber rooms for guarantee workers. To clarify, union rules make it virtually impossible for New York City to fire teachers.

In response, the city set up reassignment rooms; or rubber rooms, where incompetent teachers sat around all day doing nothing. They paid the teachers to sit and do nothing. The purpose of the rubber rooms was to keep bad teachers away from the kids.

Therefore, governments will set up rubber rooms for guarantee workers to keep them from interfering in government business. For example, a city government could set up a special “work detail” for guarantee workers picking up trash by hand.

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My Thoughts

The Moral Arguments for Basic Income

A good basic income would give people a living wage and free millions to do important work. It would affirm the value of their work, and demonstrate that money is not the only goal of work.

The worst thing about our present jobs culture is the way it undervalues people. The only values assigned to people are the job they perform, or the amount of money they make.
By basing compensation and benefits solely on “jobs” we strip individuals of their dignity.

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Politics

Democrats Jobs’ Guarantee is a Terrible Idea

America faces a future with fewer jobs, less money, less economic activity, and more income inequality. The “jobs guarantee” will do nothing to fix that situation because it ignores the problems, and might make things worse.

Agencies would end up paying people $15 an hour to paint rocks, wash vehicles by hand, rake leaves, pick-up litter, or sit at a desk and play League of Legends on the government computer. Many agencies might create up separate needless departments just to keep the guarantee employees from interfering with the actual work.

A likely side effect of the guarantee would be the creation of a large class of uneducated people with little or no initiative or independence, that are completely dependent on the government. Many individuals would end up stuck in dead-end guarantee jobs just to get health insurance.

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