Can we progressives make this happen?

[Pushed To The Left]

There is something that I would like to see happen, but I don't know exactly how feasible it is. I think these things would be very good goals for America:

1. Any adult who wants a full-time job will be guaranteed one.

2. Any person working 40 or more hours per week will be able to comfortably support himself or herself as well as a family.


I think that if these 2 things were true, a lot of our problems will be solved. However, I think a lot of things would have to be shaken up first. How can we begin to accomplish this?

[Squeech]

1. Several possibilities

but they all involve running successful businesses.

Open a factory that makes something useful, or at least marketable (have you noticed that all the magnetic yellow ribbons in the store say "Made in China"?). Hire people to work in it and pay them well. Tell them you're proud of them. Most important, never never never go out looking for venture capital, nor lose any voting control of the company, because as soon as you let the bean counters in there, they'll ruin it for everybody. Best if you don't even issue stock, so you can't be the victim of a hostile takeover either.

Now repeat that several thousand times.

[tubbacheez]

5. Sounds like Anti-Magnet.com

http://www.antimagnet.com/

:)

[Squeech]

8. Yeah, that works

But it should be possible to do better.

My favorite business success story is the guy who ran the hi-fi store where the members of a scrabbling rock group called the Warlocks used to hang out. They observed that the PA systems they had to use to sing into all sucked, and they suggested to the guy that if he built a better system than what was then commercially available, they'd rent it from him frequently. So he did, and they did. And the other bands in town noticed, and they wanted to rent it too, and there was enough demand that he had to build another one. And then a bigger one, as the various bands got more popular and got booked to play bigger venues. Ultimately the guy-- I think his name was Heil-- had millions of dollars worth of sound systems for hire, and half a dozen trucks to haul it all around in, and a bunch of highly skilled (and well compensated) employees to set it all up, run it, tear it down, and truck it to the next gig. By then, of course, the group had changed its name from the Warlocks to the Grateful Dead.

There are several elements to his success. Technical knowledge and skill go into it, of course. So does vision, having the idea how to improve a system or a situation. So does luck, of course. So does a non-judgmental attitude toward your customers: most entrepreneurs would probably have kicked Pigpen out of their stores, not listened politely while he and his friends described a highly speculative business opportunity.

I've been trying to think of such a concept my whole life. But I'm afraid I'm not imaginative enough. Best idea I've had is to start a wind farm: buy up an abandoned family farm somewhere picturesque, erect a bunch of wind turbines on the property, and sell electricity back to the grid. I only need a couple million more dollars...

My opinion, and worth what you paid for it.

[katinmn]

2. Throw in Social Security and you've got the New Deal!

that's an exaggeration, of course.

But Rooseveldt did put people to work, including a lot of young men 18-22, in the nation's parks, forests, rivers, etc. They even surveyed the woods up north.

It was a good plan for those who had NOTHING. Better than continuing to take from those who have just a little.

[tubbacheez]

3. Hmmm.... #1 is difficult. It would take a very brilliant idea to solve.

Existing market forces CAN employ just about anyone who wants a job, but the catch is what QUALITY of job is to be expected?

People may have different conditions to consider a job acceptable, e.g. staying local, a certain level of pay (like you said in #2), certain hours or shifts, or certain benefits.

Finding work isn't hard. Simply allow yourself to be exploited in a sweatshop. Or clean offices in the middle of the night for dirt wages. Or something similar.

Finding ACCEPTABLE work is today's challenge.

What counts as acceptable work? This is a complex question that covers a lot of social ground. Acceptable compensation, acceptable benefits, acceptable work conditions, and maybe even acceptable career potential all need to be hashed out.

[Pushed To The Left]

9. I was thinking of #1 and #2 as a package deal

I don't think one would be effective without the other. Guaranteed full-time work for those who want to work, and a guaranteed ability to support oneself or a family for those who work full-time. You would think some conservative opponents of welfare would like this idea, since it focuses on putting people to work.

[demwing]

11. Kind of like a Civilian Corp

Instead of securing our country from foreign and domestic threats, they would be responsible for securing our country from economic and financial dangers.

Its just a little bit of socialism, and would sell easily if presented with a healthy dose of patriotism.

[tubbacheez]

18. It's always a package deal.

That was my whole point. Creating jobs isn't all that hard. Just use tax dollars to fund any half-decent project and place employment ads.

But it would be an astronomical coincidence if every task found a local worker with the right skills and right desire and a compatible living situation.

Remember, we're talking about finding some way to GUARANTEE a willing worker will find a job that makes a decent living.

If a new worker comes of age (say at his 18th birthday), will a new job be automatically created for him? If so, what kind of job? Which newcomers to the workforce get the jobs with a future, and which ones get the dead-end jobs?

If I was a willing experienced worker in need of work, will my guaranteed job use my preferred skills that I enjoy using all day and every day? Or will it use whatever skills I happen to have?

Will I get training if none of my existing skills are appropriate?

And how far away can such a job be and still count as my guaranteed job? 5 miles? 50 miles? 500 miles? What if I cannot relocate (due to illness or family obligations)?

How do we separate those who truly need a special job created just for them from those who are simply too picky?





It's a wonderful goal in the abstract, but we need to solve a few fundamental problems before we can say we have a practical implementation.

[dweller]

4. Infrastructure

could use some work.

oh, wait. . . that was a Kucinich idea...

damn. guess the yellow ribbon magnets thing is better.

dp

[Warpy]

6. Tax the rich

with a progressive tax system. Prevent the concentration of wealth through government intervention. Recirculate the money through the economy from the bottom up.

The reason nobody's got any money and that jobs are drying up is because the rich have stolen it all, concentrated it at the top, and there it sits, doing nothing. Less money at the bottom means less demand for goods and services and that means less productive jobs available.

It's time for demand side economics to get that money moving and doing something productive, and the only way to do that is by siphoning it off the top and recirculating it at the bottom, creating demand for goods and services.

The rich always managed to get richer, even when the top income tax rate was 90%. They just got rich more slowly as they subsidized the conditions for a large middle class and a stable country.

[dweller]

7. Commie! ..... n/t

:P

dp

[Warpy]

12. Thank you

Any day that goes by where textbook New Deal liberalism doesn't get me called a communist is a wasted day.

[dweller]

13. well, we oughta get along just fine . . .

:thumbsup:


dp

[lostinacause]

15. Money in stocks does nothing?

I regard to:
The reason nobody's got any money and that jobs are drying up is because the rich have stolen it all, concentrated it at the top, and there it sits, doing nothing. Less money at the bottom means less demand for goods and services and that means less productive jobs available.

[demwing]

10. A Domestic Peace Corp

with people going into rural or inner city areas to refurbish housing and small business areas, teach basic skills, etc.

Or this-

A nationalized company called "America Works". Making and selling things like tools and household goods at a discount. Higher prices than Walmart, but all-American made, really rubbing in the patriotic effect of spending an extra buck or two to support the USA.

Kind of like the push to buy War Bonds during WW2.

Keep prices down by eliminating retail stores. Sell everything through catalogues distributed to every address courtesy of the US mail. All profits go into the Social Security fund.

You could put a lot of people to work with a combination of these programs.

[lostinacause]

14. The costs associated with this type of plan

so high that it would make it undesirable for almost everyone who currently works hard and has any sort of job training.

[Selteri]

16. Actually, it could be done....

if we stopped putting so many billions into the military and shifts it to rebuilding our schools, city 'infrastructures' and roads to upgrade the country from the whopping D we recieved.

It's basically the same thing Roosevelt did... it causes a huge domino effect.

[lostinacause]

17. Unconditionally guaranteeing people jobs if they want one

is infeasible. A "living wage" for most people is practical if money is invested in human capital and a good atmosphere for business is created.