Bernie Sanders' Job Guarantee - guarantee every adult American a public sector job at minimum wage

[Landvaluetaxhateselderly]

Bernie Sanders' JG proposal to end all poverty in USA. Guarantee every adult American a public sector job at minimum wage - job like any other job can be fired. Examples of JG Jobs: open source programming, social care, environmental work (e.g. stabilizing sand dunes), teacher assistants, musicians, community handyman, construction contacts on a shelf (e.g. side of a motorway) and mothering. What is your view on it?

JG function as automatic stabilizer, increase spending during busts and decrease spending during booms (move from $15/hour JG job to $17/hour private sector job automatic reduction in government spending.)

[Stranger in a strange land]

At the very least, a modern version of the CCC to mitigate climate change and rebuild infrastructure would probably be a good idea.

[laddicus finch]

Skeptical, but open to being convinced. Government-led job creation programs are helpful in economic recovery, but I just don't see this as a sustainable way to end poverty. Job creation shouldn't be an end in itself, because the end result is unnecessary jobs that cost more than they generate. Bernie's plan has merits in that I think there is a lot of infrastructure development that could be done in the US which would create millions of jobs, some temporary and some permanent. But "guaranteeing" employment implies creating jobs for every kind of worker. You'd either have to train millions of workers to learn the skills that can actually be put to use by the government at all times, or you'd have to create jobs based on what the unemployed but searching people are already competent at.

At the very least, it should be designed so that the jobs that the government creates are either permanent jobs for things the private sector can't/won't/shouldn't do, or temporary gigs for stimulus when businesses are struggling. Both are things that already happen, but ramping it up would be a great idea. That said, you can't guarantee universal employment like that. Guaranteeing implies creating jobs even when there is no demand for it, and that's an excellent way to waste public money while undercutting private businesses that are already doing it.

[Averroës Nix]

I don't even want to imagine what these workplaces would be like. It seems like a way of remaking low-wage employment in the image of the asylum.

Strangeland's example of the Civilian Conservation Corps suggests a better model: Work relief programs that both allow young people to enter the workforce, serving as an alternative to the military or college, while also providing an opportunity for older workers to retrain.

[Weimar Amerika]

I don't even want to imagine what these workplaces would be like. It seems like a way of remaking low-wage employment in the image of the asylum.

Strangeland's example of the Civilian Conservation Corps suggests a better model: Work relief programs that both allow young people to enter the workforce, serving as an alternative to the military or college, while also providing an opportunity for older workers to retrain.

Retail has already done this.

[Lechasseur]

I don't even want to imagine what these workplaces would be like. It seems like a way of remaking low-wage employment in the image of the asylum.

Strangeland's example of the Civilian Conservation Corps suggests a better model: Work relief programs that both allow young people to enter the workforce, serving as an alternative to the military or college, while also providing an opportunity for older workers to retrain.

Retail has already done this.

And call centers

[Del Tachi]

This is 100x preferable to UBI

[Beet]

I'm all for it - the wage should be at least minimum wage. It should be called, the 'right to work'.

[Lechasseur]

This is 100x preferable to UBI

Agreed

[Lechasseur]

I'm all for it - the wage should be at least minimum wage. It should be called, the 'right to work'.

Agreed as well