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The cost to turn unemployed clerks into construction workers is not close to zero. They would need training, equipment, supervision, health benefits etc. For th
by chokma 16y ago
The cost to turn unemployed clerks into construction workers is not close to zero. They would need training, equipment, supervision, health benefits etc. For this reason, when here in Germany someone suggested to get all those unemployed to shovel snow during the winter, the local politicians did not want any such workers - while the unemployed would receive next to nothing, the cost to the community would be higher than having professionals do the job.
Forcing people down on their luck to work for free is going to put pressure on the wages of those who do the same work for a living.
- yummyfajitas 16y agoOk, so lets turn unemployed clerks/realtors into DMV clerks, and unemployed construction workers into construction workers on a border fence. As for lowering wages, that's a good thing. Wage stickiness is a major contributor to recessions - this is one thing that Keynes, recalculationists, Austrians and ZMPists can all agree on. Downward wage pressure can help break the back of wage stickiness.
- jbooth 16y agoOne mechanism for that might be by advertising for the positions to attract the right kinds of candidates for each type, and then paying them. :)
- euroclydon 16y agoI don't see how there is any difference between 1) Preserving high wages by stifling the availability of workers and then charging a higher tax on the employed to pay unemployment benefits. And, 2) Letting there be more competition for available jobs, forcing wages down, but employing more people.
- tptacek 16y agoIf you believe that unemployment benefits habituate people to unemployment lifestyles, then reducing wages and increasing employment has the effect of "unsticking" people who would otherwise be locked into unemployment. That's the difference. There isn't really a controversy about whether unemployment benefits incentivize unemployment. They clearly do. In the absence of beneits, people would very rapidly find ways of obtaining income. The point of unemployment benefits is to allow them to find better income streams; ie, not by selling blood. If all unemployment benefits do is delay the inevitable trip to the blood bank, they are indeed a poor idea.