An economics, investment, trading and policy blog with a focus on Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). We seek the truth, avoid the mainstream and are virulently anti-neoliberalism.
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Wednesday, March 21, 2018
Sean McElwee, Colin McAuliffe and Jon Green — Why Democrats Should Embrace a Federal Jobs Guarantee
Going mainstream. Some prominent Democrats are already embracing a JG.
The authors say, “The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, for example, recently released a paper arguing for a job guarantee through a national infrastructure bank that would set a floor on wages and benefits.”
What on Earth is the point of having JG do the job of minimum wage laws? I.e. if $15 an hour is minimum acceptable wage (as suggested by the recent Levy Policy Note 2018/2) and its just JG that pays that wage, that will tend to draw people from normal productive work to relatively unproductive JG work. Why not just have flat $15 an hour min wage for ALL EMPLOYERS then the latter “draw” effect is avoided?
Next, the authors say “The CBPP plan envisions an infrastructure bank that would fund vital projects…” Well the first problem there is that most of the unemployed do not have infrastructure related skills. Second, the latter Levy work specifically rules out having a particularly large proportion of JG people doing construction work.
I’ve only got a quarter of the way thru that “Nation” article. I cannot be bothered with any more of it. The JG lot need to get their act together.
The authors say, “The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, for example, recently released a paper arguing for a job guarantee through a national infrastructure bank that would set a floor on wages and benefits.”
ReplyDeleteWhat on Earth is the point of having JG do the job of minimum wage laws? I.e. if $15 an hour is minimum acceptable wage (as suggested by the recent Levy Policy Note 2018/2) and its just JG that pays that wage, that will tend to draw people from normal productive work to relatively unproductive JG work. Why not just have flat $15 an hour min wage for ALL EMPLOYERS then the latter “draw” effect is avoided?
Next, the authors say “The CBPP plan envisions an infrastructure bank that would fund vital projects…” Well the first problem there is that most of the unemployed do not have infrastructure related skills. Second, the latter Levy work specifically rules out having a particularly large proportion of JG people doing construction work.
I’ve only got a quarter of the way thru that “Nation” article. I cannot be bothered with any more of it. The JG lot need to get their act together.