Saturday, January 14, 2012

hbl — What are the lessons of CETA? (a 1973 US jobs program)


Read it at Thought Offerings
What are the lessons of CETA? (a 1973 US jobs program)
by hbl

6 comments:

Tom Hickey said...

The Labor Department in The Carter Administration:
A Summary Report — January 14, 1981
 By Ray Marshall

beowulf said...

1973, ehh? I believe this is what journalists call "burying the lede".
Who was President in 1973? Hint, he proposed an employer mandate universal health insurance program, adopted a Keynesian "full employment budget", proposed a negative income tax, took us off the gold standard and created the Environmental Protection Agency.

hbl said...

Tom,

Thanks for highlighting my two posts, and for the CETA link. Clonal provided another source too over on the post itself. I haven't had a chance to look through them yet, but what I was most curious about -- CETA viewed through the lens of MMT academics -- has yet to materialize.

beowulf,

Heh heh... Well I mentioned Carter in the first sentence of the post at least, but honestly I don't know as much as I should about the politics of that time period. I suppose I should read into your reply that your assessment is CETA was an inherently political program that therefore couldn't outlast its political creators? If that's what you were getting out, that is just the type of "lesson learned" that would be relevant to debate on the MMT JG concept.

john f said...

@beo Sounds like you're playin Name That Liberal. http://fabiusmaximus.wordpress.com/2010/07/06/19091/

beowulf said...

I suppose I should read into your reply that your assessment is CETA was an inherently political program that therefore couldn't outlast its political creators?

Errr, no. My point was that in 1973, the President of the United States was the person in this photograph NOT named Sammy Davis Jr.
http://mikemillsweb.com/images/home/richard-nixon-sammy-davis-jr.jpg

“Into this “mess” stepped President Richard Nixon. What he proposed was a striking departure from the status quo… The income of poor people living in the South would be tripled, and the welfare rolls themselves would double in size. According to not a few economists, 60 percent of all indigent people would be brought above the poverty line immediately were this proposal to be enacted into law. Lyndon Johnson never dared go so far. Both architects of the programs– dubbed the Family Assistance Plan (FAP)– and correspondents, not to mention historians, have recognized the boldness of Nixon’s proposal.”
http://books.google.com/books?id=J9oZ2yTlR_kC&lpg=PA287&pg=PA287

hbl said...

Wow, how foolish of me! You got me... I'm pretty weak on US history, and either the CETA reference I originally found gave the wrong presidential attribution (and I didn't bother checking) or I simply mangled my summary of it.

Thanks for setting me straight!