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I'm a big fan of Roger, but disagree with him on this one.
He raises some legitimate issues -- yes, an ELR would require a substantial bureaucracy (which would create jobs). Yes, there should be different wages for different jobs skills rather than Mosler's simple $8/hr plan. Yes, rural areas would be hard pressed to find jobs that match everyone's skills and within commuting range.
Worst case, it may not work for every single job seeker, and perhaps there should be a minimum income plan for those who can't find a fitting place in the ELR.
But ... I can see a ELR doing a lot of good in a lot of places.
In particular, in depressed areas of the country like the Mississippi Delta that has never ever experienced full employment. They desperately need an ELR.
And remember, its not just about giving people income to stimulate the economy. It's also about giving people work experience, and skills, and pride, something that handout-type programs don't do.
Roger asked what would happen if the ELR needed to fire an employee.
I agree that there is a need to fire. One answer might be that the ELR could indeed fire, and there would be a waiting period before the individual could be rehired.
There will be people with substance abuse problems, people with mental illness, etc., who are not able to fit into an ELR program.
For that reason and others, I see it as very important that the ELR bureaucracy must have a beefy HR department, to evaluate employees for physical health, skills, aptitudes, etc., and make recommendations for placing the individual.
It may be that some individuals need counseling or training before they are ready to work. Well, then, the ELR HR could recommend that, and PAY them to get that counseling/training.
It may be that some individuals simply aren't capable of working due to mental/physical limitations. Again, the ELR HR could, after thorough evaluations, recommend that the individual be placed on disability.
Some will complain that an ELR HR bureaucracy is evil in some way, supposedly because bureaucracy is non-productive and it diverts resources from the private sector. Bunk. The private sector has never operated at 100% capacity in my lifetime. And if we are going to have a service economy, then we need to invest in our people. Providing HR services to needy people may not produce anything tangible, but that doesn't mean it's not productive.
The main reason I like the ELR idea is because there are some regions of our country, and some minority groups, who have had high unemployment even during boom times. See any Indian Reservation, or some of the depressed areas of the Delta.
Handout are OK in the short term, but long term handouts destroy pride. These people would be so much better off if they had meaningful jobs.
People including Rodger, talk as if there was no history to the JG. The WPA was a model for the JG, and that history (as opposed to the right wing dissing of it) should be required reading before people criticize the JG on purely speculative or extremely theoretical reasoning.
The thing that gets me (apologies that this doesn't add to the discussion) all of these questions have been answered in the JG literature.
I read mostly Billy Blog and if he hasn't said it in his blog in the last three years, he's linked to an academic working paper (or study) that says it.
Sure its not explicit on the bureaucratic process but as often noted, that design is a political choice.
Given the nominal price anchor is a top down function, we need to make a way to make it bottom up so we can sell the idea to our respective governments and go "see it works" - it is not nonsense.
5 comments:
I'm a big fan of Roger, but disagree with him on this one.
He raises some legitimate issues -- yes, an ELR would require a substantial bureaucracy (which would create jobs). Yes, there should be different wages for different jobs skills rather than Mosler's simple $8/hr plan. Yes, rural areas would be hard pressed to find jobs that match everyone's skills and within commuting range.
Worst case, it may not work for every single job seeker, and perhaps there should be a minimum income plan for those who can't find a fitting place in the ELR.
But ... I can see a ELR doing a lot of good in a lot of places.
In particular, in depressed areas of the country like the Mississippi Delta that has never ever experienced full employment. They desperately need an ELR.
And remember, its not just about giving people income to stimulate the economy. It's also about giving people work experience, and skills, and pride, something that handout-type programs don't do.
Roger asked what would happen if the ELR needed to fire an employee.
I agree that there is a need to fire. One answer might be that the ELR could indeed fire, and there would be a waiting period before the individual could be rehired.
There will be people with substance abuse problems, people with mental illness, etc., who are not able to fit into an ELR program.
For that reason and others, I see it as very important that the ELR bureaucracy must have a beefy HR department, to evaluate employees for physical health, skills, aptitudes, etc., and make recommendations for placing the individual.
It may be that some individuals need counseling or training before they are ready to work. Well, then, the ELR HR could recommend that, and PAY them to get that counseling/training.
It may be that some individuals simply aren't capable of working due to mental/physical limitations. Again, the ELR HR could, after thorough evaluations, recommend that the individual be placed on disability.
Some will complain that an ELR HR bureaucracy is evil in some way, supposedly because bureaucracy is non-productive and it diverts resources from the private sector. Bunk. The private sector has never operated at 100% capacity in my lifetime. And if we are going to have a service economy, then we need to invest in our people. Providing HR services to needy people may not produce anything tangible, but that doesn't mean it's not productive.
The main reason I like the ELR idea is because there are some regions of our country, and some minority groups, who have had high unemployment even during boom times. See any Indian Reservation, or some of the depressed areas of the Delta.
Handout are OK in the short term, but long term handouts destroy pride. These people would be so much better off if they had meaningful jobs.
People including Rodger, talk as if there was no history to the JG. The WPA was a model for the JG, and that history (as opposed to the right wing dissing of it) should be required reading before people criticize the JG on purely speculative or extremely theoretical reasoning.
The thing that gets me (apologies that this doesn't add to the discussion) all of these questions have been answered in the JG literature.
I read mostly Billy Blog and if he hasn't said it in his blog in the last three years, he's linked to an academic working paper (or study) that says it.
Sure its not explicit on the bureaucratic process but as often noted, that design is a political choice.
Given the nominal price anchor is a top down function, we need to make a way to make it bottom up so we can sell the idea to our respective governments and go "see it works" - it is not nonsense.
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