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>Your argument seems to hinge on this, but I see no reason to believe it. Why else did the people under Plan Jefes CONTINUE doing their jobs - kind of for free

>Your argument seems to hinge on this, but I see no reason to believe it. Why else did the people under Plan Jefes CONTINUE doing their jobs - kind of for free, really - after the jobguarantee was replaced with an income guarantee? >Much of the unskilled labor done by the CCC has since been automated into fewer skilled jobs. "It worked in a completely different world" doesn't convince me that it'll work in this one. I'm very unimpressed with the idea that automation has killed off all our jobs and will continue to do so. It's pushed as a red herring for the sudden surge in unemployment since the 1990s that was nearly ALL political in origin. If automation had replaced all those jobs instead of politics deciding that they were unnecessary then our infrastructure would be in considerably better shape. It isnt'. >See what I said re: unskilled->skilled labor shift. To what degree do you actually expect unskilled labor to move those programs along? They're held up by engineering problems, not labor shortages. We've actually had a skilled labor -> unskilled labor shift since 2008. Check the statistics. I don't expect a job guarantee to provide only unskilled jobs, either. I expect it to provide jobs for unemployed engineers, just like the PWA did. Hell, the PWA gave Milton Friedman a job as an economist (we needed them too). It's where he got his start. It wasn't only for unskilled laborers.

thedufer 12y ago
> Check the statistics. I'd love to. Link? > Why else did the people under Plan Jefes CONTINUE doing their jobs - kind of for free, really - after the jobguarantee was replaced with an income guarantee? Again, link? I can't find any reference about that program dropping the work requirement. > I don't expect a job guarantee to provide only unskilled jobs, either. I didn't claim that. Finding useful work for skilled laborers is far easier than for unskilled, and unfortunately most of the unemployed are the latter, which is why that is the more difficult problem to solve. Edit: From your other comment: > Yep, the question is whether as a society you'd rather have them building bridges and schools or forming bands and writing (mostly pretty bad) poetry. Again, bridges and schools are built by skilled laborers. Employing them is not that difficult part of this plan. Also, its not a direct trade-off. Employing someone for a set salary is far more expensive than just giving them that money. BI becomes an easier sell when you recognize that PWA is both less effective (what about the people who can't work?) and far more expensive.

thedufer 12y ago

> Check the statistics. I'd love to. Link? > Why else did the people under Plan Jefes CONTINUE doing their jobs - kind of for free, really - after the jobguarantee was replaced with an income guarantee? Again, link? I can't find any reference about that program dropping the work requirement. > I don't expect a job guarantee to provide only unskilled jobs, either. I didn't claim that. Finding useful work for skilled laborers is far easier than for unskilled, and unfortunately most of the unemployed are the latter, which is why that is the more difficult problem to solve. Edit: From your other comment: > Yep, the question is whether as a society you'd rather have them building bridges and schools or forming bands and writing (mostly pretty bad) poetry. Again, bridges and schools are built by skilled laborers. Employing them is not that difficult part of this plan. Also, its not a direct trade-off. Employing someone for a set salary is far more expensive than just giving them that money. BI becomes an easier sell when you recognize that PWA is both less effective (what about the people who can't work?) and far more expensive.