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This kind of skirts the problem. There are more unemployed than there are jobs. There are far more under-employed people working at McDonalds that would like

This kind of skirts the problem. There are more unemployed than there are jobs. There are far more under-employed people working at McDonalds that would like better jobs. Those jobs don't exist. They just don't. The jobs are in China or they are being done better by mechanical sorters at Amazon. Even if we figure out a relocation plan, that solves a minor part of the problem. Worse, those low skilled, high risk employees are now in another part of the country, first to be laid off and with no social network once they are. There is NO solution that doesn’t involve either make work programs OR a guaranteed income OR people homeless and starving.

aggieben 13y ago
> There is NO solution that doesn’t involve either make work programs OR a guaranteed income OR people homeless and starving. I think that's a pretty narrow view. There are other possible alternatives, like: new businesses opening; completely new industry forming that doesn't require high skill levels from its workers. Given an individual situation, I don't think it would be too difficult to imagine additional scenarios. I'm not trying to trivialize the difficulty the long-term unemployed are facing, but I don't think it's constructive to throw up your hands and despair, either.
- nickff 13y ago
  It is also likely that when these open positions are filled, more will become available.
- Ensorceled 13y ago
  I can imagine that happening but it's seems silly to base policy on some imaginary scenario where a new industry starts up that that needs literally millions of lower skilled employees to function. When was the last time that happened? Every current industry is shedding employees. New industries are either small or require a high skill set.
ForHackernews 13y ago
Maybe make-work programs aren't a bad idea? American infrastructure is in a really bad way, something like the Civilian Conservation Corps could do a lot of good repairing and improving rail lines, highways, bridges, and the electrical grid.

aggieben 13y ago

> There is NO solution that doesn’t involve either make work programs OR a guaranteed income OR people homeless and starving. I think that's a pretty narrow view. There are other possible alternatives, like: new businesses opening; completely new industry forming that doesn't require high skill levels from its workers. Given an individual situation, I don't think it would be too difficult to imagine additional scenarios. I'm not trying to trivialize the difficulty the long-term unemployed are facing, but I don't think it's constructive to throw up your hands and despair, either.

nickff 13y ago
It is also likely that when these open positions are filled, more will become available.
Ensorceled 13y ago
I can imagine that happening but it's seems silly to base policy on some imaginary scenario where a new industry starts up that that needs literally millions of lower skilled employees to function. When was the last time that happened? Every current industry is shedding employees. New industries are either small or require a high skill set.

ForHackernews 13y ago

Maybe make-work programs aren't a bad idea? American infrastructure is in a really bad way, something like the Civilian Conservation Corps could do a lot of good repairing and improving rail lines, highways, bridges, and the electrical grid.