Pavlina Tcherneva, a Professor of Economics at Bard College and a Research Scholar at the Levy Institute, has written a concisely, argued case for a federal job guarantee within the context of a Green New Deal. Citing its origins in FDR’s 1944 Economic Bill of Rights and the U.N.’s Universal Declaration of Rights, and the, at least nominal, commitment to the idea of full employment that prevailed through every administration until it was quashed with the election of Ronald Reagan, Tcherneva points out that it is a moral imperative, more needed than ever before. Although this book was written before A.I.’s threat to jobs became visible, Tcherneva’s call to action could not be more prescient.The National Jobs for All Network
Review of The Case for a Job Guarantee by Pavlina R. Tcherneva, Polity Press (2020)
Sheila D. Collins, professor emeritus of political science at William Paterson University
The reasoning is that a job guarantee would allow workers to be lazy.
ReplyDeleteSimilar reasoning existed during slavery. In place of unemployment, the instrument of coercion was the whip.
Is Abiy Ahmed the Most Dangerous Man in Africa?
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/CjW2AmirkxI
Dive deep into Ethiopia's tumultuous journey from Abiy Ahmed's Nobel Peace Prize victory to overseeing deadly conflicts. Unravel the turning points, historical context, and the complex forces shaping Africa's future.
An overlooked war at least as bad as the wars making the nightly news.
Mankind has always had wars … if you are anti-war you are an outlier…
ReplyDeleteThe non-aggression principle requires you to be anti-war.
ReplyDeleteA civil war in Sudan is also being ignored by the MSM.
Nobody cares about the turd world …. and everyone there is trying to come here…,
ReplyDeleteIt's in the public interest to be informed of conflicts that have killed 600,000 (Ethiopia/Tigre) and displaced 6 million (Sudan). Obsessing over Gaza to the exclusion of all else is another way of controlling the narrative.
ReplyDeleteEverywhere I look I see signs that say, “Now hiring” and “help wanted.”
ReplyDeleteWhy then do we need a job guarantee?
Everywhere I look I see signs that say, "For Rent" and "For Sale".
ReplyDeleteWhy then do we need an affordable housing guarantee?
@ Peter Pan: You equate the availability of work, which provides money, with the availability of things for sale or rent, which requires money.
ReplyDeleteYou might as well say, "Everywhere I look I see speed limit signs. Why then do we need affordable sports cars?"
It would be just as non-sensical.
@ Konrad
ReplyDeleteAre you so stupid as to believe there is no unemployment?
Rhetorical question.
The reasoning is that a job guarantee would allow workers to be lazy.
ReplyDeleteHuh? We are probably in furious agreement, but a job guarantee allows workers to not "be lazy" - that is to provide for themselves by work. I don't see how anyone's reasoning is like that. Only people who seem to become incoherent, aphasic when they see the words "job guarantee" talk like that.
The instrument of coercion in a monetary economy is the need for money to provide necessities.
A monetary economy without a job guarantee is an absurd, sadistic idea - whip and coerce - but no provision of necessities. It's an attempt to terrorize people into an approximation of slavery. The equivalent in a slave economy would be - whipping slaves, just because the master enjoys it. Don't let them work to get out of being whipped, just whip them.
A job guarantee with minimal standards in terms of pay, benefits and working hours would out-compete some private sector jobs. So workers would become lazy, from the private sector perspective. They don't look at the damage done by maintaining unemployment, and by rendering segments of the population unemployable. Ideally, the private sector would abolish the social safety net. Any relief given to the unemployed undermines the coercive nature of the system.
ReplyDeleteA JG beats unionism. Laziness in that sense equates to power.