Atlasian Unemployment Bill

[Ebowed]

Atlasian Unemployment Bill

1. The Atlasian Government pledges to keep a goal of less than 3.5% of the population unemployed.

2. The Atlasian Government, to combat the problem of unemployment, will create Public Works projects to spur competition, and attempt to tide unemployment.

3. The Atlasian Government will provide tax incentives to small business owners who employ ten people or more in times of employment crisis.

4. The Atlasian Government will pay a fixed salary for Public Works projects, determined by the Senate and approved by the President, but it is to be no lower than the current Nyman D.C. minimum wage.


Sponsor: The President pro tempore

[Colin]

While the Keynesian model might have worked in, say, 1944 it does not work under present day economic conditions. What this would just do is artificially inflate the economy using government spending while not addressing the underlying causes of these economic downturns themselves. Not only does this make a massive amount of Atlasians dependent upon the state for their welfare and thus destroying the faith in the individual that we as a nation hold dear but it will also mire us in a pit of inflationary debt while bringing the Atlasian government more into the realm of business.

This is a bill for nothing less than the takeover of industry by the government and for a placing a band-aid over an issue instead of actually trying to fix the causes of this unemployment. Instead of actual answers we are basically going to pay people to dig ditches all day. I'm sorry Senator but this isn't 1936, and this isn't the Great Depression, we cannot use ideas and methodologies that have been shown to be inaffective in economic policy in the last 35 years and again put them to use. The budget deficits that would come from this might raise nominal GDP but with the inflationary effect of that debt any increase in GDP could very well be negated by a lowering of purchasing power. Also with these public works employees competing with private industry we may see more businesses close because of their inability to compete with these federally subsidized workers.

With all of that along with taking millions of people out of the private labour force and putting them into a public one, thus contracting the private labour pool to such a point that if a recovery begins companies may not be able to find the work forces that they need to recovery. Also setting full-employment at 3.5% of the workforce being unemployed is very bad. Current full-employment unemployment is 5% and our economy works off of that. By placing this lower and make sure it stays at that level there could be massive inflationary pressures against the market as more people are working and buying the same amount of products.

So overall this makes people dependent upon the government, will cause massive inflationary pressures, will reduce the private workforce if we head into a recovery, will cause massive deficit spending which could lead to inflation, as well as give private companies a group that they cannot compete against if these "Public Works" employees are put to more money making objectives. An absolutely horrible solution to this financial crisis.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Nice to see an attempt to deal with the situation. Action by government in this area might well produce a positive impact.

But I should point something out here:

1. The Atlasian Government pledges to keep a goal of less than 3.5% of the population unemployed.

At the moment (and unlike the official U.S unemployment figures in the real world), the longterm unemployed are being counted as part of the official total. This won't change either; as I'm independent both the government and party politics (well, with the exception of my little tribute to Jaroslav Hašek), I have no reason to keep unemployment figures artificially low (as they are in the U.S in real life... o/c all countries find various ways of fiddling their numbers downwards, it's a big reason why unemployment figures aren't directly comparable between different countries, but the U.S has been especially bad recently).

A 5% figure would be much more realistic.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

"Public Works projects to spur competition" is rather oxymoronic, and the rest of the bill is so full of vague handwaving as to be either meaningless or dangerous.  I'd need to see this rather more fleshed out before I could support it.

[Јas]

Proposed Amendment
That in section 1 of the bill, '3.5%' be changed to '5%'.

[Ebowed]

Amendment:

That in section 1 of the bill, '3.5%' be changed to '5%'.


Voting is open on this amendment.

[Ebowed]

Aye

[Colin]

Aye

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Aye

[Јas]

Aye

[DWPerry]

nay

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Aye.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Aye

[Brandon H]

Aye

[Ebowed]

This amendment has passed.

[Ebowed]

I propose the following amendment:

Clause 2 is replaced with: "The Atlasian Government, to combat the problem of unemployment, will create Public Works projects.  A Public Works Commission will be formed to create jobs for the unemployed."

Clause 4 is replaced with: "Workers in the Public Works program shall be paid a fixed salary of $7.85 an hour."

[Ebowed]

Clause 2 is replaced with: "The Atlasian Government, to combat the problem of unemployment, will create Public Works projects.  A Public Works Commission will be formed to create jobs for the unemployed."

Clause 4 is replaced with: "Workers in the Public Works program shall be paid a fixed salary of $7.85 an hour."


Voting is open on both of these amendments.

[Ebowed]

Aye to both

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Aye to the former, Abstain on the latter.

[Colin]

Aye
Nay

[Јas]

Clause 2: Aye
Clause 4: Abstain

[Brandon H]

Aye

Nay

[DWPerry]

NAY

&

NAY

[Everett]

Clause 2: Aye.
Clause 4: Abstain.

[Ebowed]

The amendment to Clause 2 passes.