Sunday, August 16, 2020

Economist: Facing Imminent Economic CRASH, Now Is The Time For A Federal Jobs Program

Economist, Pavlina Tcherneva, weighs in on the CARES Act and what lawmakers need to do to help strengthen the U.S. economy.



9 comments:

Peter Pan said...

Time for Stephanie Kelton to cash in on her political capital.

Andrew Anderson said...

So how does one have social distancing with a jobs program?

Or does enforced wage slavery take precedence over all? Including safety? Not to mention justice?

Andrew Anderson said...

How climate change could expose new epidemics

Peter Pan said...

So how does one have social distancing with a jobs program?

Or does enforced wage slavery take precedence over all? Including safety? Not to mention justice?


By fantasizing about it. Anything is possible in a fantasy.

Calgacus said...

Or does enforced wage slavery take precedence over all? Including safety? Not to mention justice?

For the trillionth time, dumb ideas like the UBI, Citizens' Dividends etc enforce wage slavery - can be even more like good old fashioned slavery. They are the opposite of justice. A well paid guaranteed job is the only way to make "wage slavery" - working for money - not slavery in any way, but a reciprocal, tit for tat, just, cooperative economy.

But because those who believe in UBI idiocies always fantasize themselves as being the slavemaster, the receiver of money for nothing and chicks for free - and never put themselves in the position of those on whose backs they are riding with their contemptible fantasies.

I think there is a definite sex difference in UBI support. "The chicks" know well who will end up being screwed by the UBI.

So how does one have social distancing with a jobs program?

Very easily. Do work. Stay away from other people. Contact tracing is a perfect fit for a jobs program. They did it in China - which is why they recovered from Covid easily and the USA didn't. Or there could be communal living like the CCC doing green jobs after testing, and for young people. Or there could be aids to help the poor sick, but not to the level of hospitalization - help quarantine themselves -as the NYA did in the Depression, as Naomi Klein noted in a recent article. FDR, the New Deal, the JG is about the good old can-do attitude and gets things done. But as she notes, since then we have taught ourselves "learned helplessness" very well.

And that's what the UBI is about- Lying in your own shit, learning ever more how to be helpless, and using the force of the state to force the lesser others to clean up after you.

Matt Franko said...

If we’re going to keep continuing this policy of shutting down 1/3 of the economy every time there is a bad cold virus going around we’re obviously going to need both...

Peter Pan said...

If the policy is to cut production, the eventual outcome is rationing.

Mike Norman said...

"Time for Stephanie Kelton to cash in on her political capital."

And what political capital is that? She was chief economist for Bernie Sanders and Sanders is running around saying we can't have a payroll tax cut because payroll taxes "fund" Social Security. So, she taught him nothing and her political capital is worthless.

Peter Pan said...

I'm referring to her new book and the chatter that followed in the wake of it.
The skeptic in me says her political capital is zero.