Nadeem Badshah — Guernsey resident halts roadworks with ancient plea

Of interest.

The Guardian
Guernsey resident halts roadworks with ancient plea

Nadeem Badshah

Yagnesh Mehta — Proud dad of 472 happily married daughters

On Father's Day, Mahesh Savani, a businessman, receives greetings from his 472 daughters. These women are actually girls who have lost their fathers. Savani has been their father figure and organized their weddings over the past few years.

After the death of his brother, Savani, now 47, had to perform the 'kanyadan' for his two nieces, around 10 years ago. The event left him thinking about the many girls without fathers. He started supporting such girls from 2008, helping them get married and supporting them through their married life. He has been organizing weddings annually since then.

Feel good post. There are caring people out there.

A dowry is still a necessity in many parts of the world where marriages are arranged.

The Times of India
Proud dad of 472 happily married daughters
Yagnesh Mehta | TNN

Matt Bruenig — Tradition-Aggression-Desert Whack-A-Mole

Matt debates against the non-aggression principle and propertarianism.

Tradition-Aggression-Desert Whack-A-MoleMatt Bruenig

Individual Unemployment, Aggregate UnImagination and Cultural Inadequacy

   (Commentary posted by Roger Erickson)



Three Interesting References On Why A Job Guarantee Is Common Sense: 1892, 1943 & 1987.

The Unemployed, By John Burns, 1892, UK

(free google ebook)

This text is worth reading, despite the wordy style & dense text formatting of the day. You can see the beginnings of many things that later became regulated policy, like the 8 hour work day. Guaranteed use of available labor is also discussed, even though that hasn't yet come to pass.
Burns suggests that a public "Ministry of Labor & Fine Arts" provide a minimal part time job guarantee, to keep citizens engaged in work useful for communities. Sounding a bit like Herbert Hoover later on, he suggests

"... dealing in an organized manner, with the industrial, technical and artistic sides of the production of wealth that are now forgotten in the vulgar scramble for personal gain."

p13: "The fact is, custom, caprice and fashion have imposed upon all communities many cruel and absurd practices which entail overwork for short periods and lack of work at others."

and regarding work itself:

"... there is no fear of the owners doing it themselves" :)

You have to wonder what our tribal ancestors would have thought, upon hearing these words. They'd likely wonder how on earth we got so disorganized? We have idle people available, willing to work, so just put them to work, by using our imagination? Individual Unemployment = Aggregate UnImagination?

###

Book #2:  also called The Unemployed (1943) Eli Ginzberg

unemployment = "shortfall in demand for labor, not ... [individual] inadequacies of [citizens]"

That's an improvement over current discussions, but again, why isn't this seen as a shortfall in imagination? Individual Unemployment = Aggregate UnImagination = Cultural Inadequacy?

###

Book #3: A job guarantee for long-term unemployed people

Richard Jackman, John Cahill, 1987

Cornell University Employment Institute

[No ebook; only US copy is in the Cornell U Library in Ithaca, NY?]

The date of this book helps show that a job guarantee has been discussed steadily by diverse people, for over 100 years.

For most of human history, a job guarantee was implicit. The only reason it isn't implicit now is because of a lack of aggregate imagination?

Jack Balkin on why institutions count

Politically, society is orded by a social compact through its institutions. When those institutions and their arrangements are established by law, the social compact become a social contract, and it is enforceable in law. The social compact is otherwise carried out through custom and social pressure to conform to custom. These two terms are often used interchangeably without drawing this distinction. I believe that this is a mistake.

Prof. Balkin's point, generally correct, I believe, is that the social compact changes over time and those changes are eventually reflected in formal changes to the social contract through laws, regulation, and judicial interpretation.

Read it at Balkinization
The Health Care Case and the Social Contract
by Jack Balkin | Knight Professor of Constitutional Law and the First Amendment at Yale Law School