Thursday, December 25, 2008

Econ 101

This time it's job creation, in the sense that FDR "created" jobs by having the unemployed create trails in the national parks, using shovels and rakes, regardless of whatever other qualifications the men might have. Obie is proposing a $750Bn program to create 10 million jobs. This comes to $75,000 per job created.

“If we write a check for $75,000 to each of the unemployed, we won’t have anyone ‘unemployed,’” said former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill.
Even better, if you write such a check, this becomes declarable income, subject to taxation, at the going rate for Federal, State, Local, and FICA. The article suggests that the cost of creating a "make work" government job is, in fact, significantly higher than the $75K allotted.

If putting people to work is the goal, we could get rid of all the heavy earth-moving equipment and go back to digging ditches with shovels.

Why stop there? If it takes one man two days to dig a trench three feet deep and 30 feet long with a shovel, how long would it take 100 men using spoons?

Somehow, there is a vision in my demented mind, of 100 college professors, toiling away to dig the ditch for a new municipal water line, using the large stainless steel spoons they use at the jails. I suppose the professors of archaeology would feel right at home, although some of the others might be somewhat put out. I suppose their former employers could offer credits in archaeology to the English Lit profs for digging, and English Lit credits to the archaeologists for listening to the English Lit profs complain in Iambic Pentameter about the lack of respect they get from the Poly Sci major who's been assigned to the project as supervisor.

1 comment:

Brad K. said...

If you want some ideas for make-work jobs..

1) Census. Do the 2010 census early. Include a survey of English language skills, including literacy.

2) Screen and identify all non-citizen adults and children in the US.

3) Assure that every individual in the country age 16 and older has: a) completed 8th grade education or equivalent; b) completed or is in the process of completing other citizenship requirements (naturalization); been declared incompetent or incapable of independent exercise of legal requirements (multiple handicap); been identified as requiring education in US and state government and history and requirements for US Citizenship.

4) Provide remedial English Language, history, and citizenship education where needed.

5) Following examples set in the Washington, DC, schools systems, identify ineffective teachers in public education. Enhance school administration competence, with an eye to improving staff retention, teaching improvement, and improving education in fundamental areas - civics, English language skills, math, and physical health and development.

6) Remove all aspects of curriculum development from Department of Education responsibilities. Restrict federal education involvement in education to oversight of administration of education, focusing on compliance with civil rights issues.

7) Control vermin and pests - mice, rats, roaches - in public housing and low-income neighborhoods using non-toxic and effective means. Includes educating residents in best and most affordable and effective practices.

8) Supplement police department "extra eyes" programs, to provide patrol and report functions in under-patrolled neighborhoods.

9) Document and report gang and criminal activities. Shedding light of community awareness can be a big step in reducing lawless neighborhoods.

10) Foster parents. Orphanage caretakers and support. Group "adult" for kids without families.

11) Compile family history and personal stories of interested seniors in nursing homes. Inventory, organize, and disseminate lessons in crafts, in home keeping, and in life. At the same time demonstrate an interest in the lives of US Citizens, and remind each one that their lives matter.

12) Survey social workers. Review administration and regulation efficiency, with an eye to improving retention of talented staff, and secondarily to improving services to the community. Start with child protective services. As with teachers, improving services will be a lot easier, once you stop discouraging the best resources.

13) Foreign legion. The French Foreign Legion was a way for individuals to legally escape their past, and after a 10 year hitch begin anew. The Foreign Legion should follow similar rules - never allowed inside the US as a unit, harsh treatment for desertion, survival would be a matter of will, discipline, and dedication. Legionaires would have no recourse to authority or legal protections outside the Legion. Open to all nationalities, and a successful hitch would include US citizenship with a clean record.

14) Build squirrel guns.