Your Government Owes You a Job

[georgephillip]

Sounds outlandish, doesn't it?

"A right to a job may sound outlandish, but it’s common sense. You need dollars to eat, and unless you steal the dollars, you generally have to earn them.

"If the government wants to protect property with cops, courts, and prisons, issue a single, common currency, and tax and fine us in it, it should at least guarantee we can work for our own dollars.

"Politicians ramble about equality of opportunity and the dignity of work, but to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, we need boots.

"And lest our boots stomp each other’s necks in senseless competition for too few jobs, we need a job guarantee.

"A job guarantee isn’t that radical.

"Thomas Paine proposed one in 1791.

"In 1944, FDR included the right to a living wage job in his Second Bill of Rights and his Republican opponent promised state-ensured employment.

"The Universal Declaration of Human Rights enshrined the right to work and philosophers Rawls and Dewey advocated government provide enough work.

"LBJ deliberated a JG and Martin Luther King Jr., demanded one."

Your Government Owes You a Job | The Nation

Since US Capitalism prefers extracting wealth as opposed to producing wealth leading to a situation where median household income today, adjusted for inflation, is lower than it was in 1989, it becomes clear that US capitalism no longer delivers the goods for a majority of its citizens.

The democratic solution calls for government to provide what the private sector is no longer capable of providing.

Well, we could take every unemployed US citizen and give them jobs.
Pay half of them to dig holes and pay the other half to fill the holes. 100% employment achieved.
Unfortunately, digging useless holes, then filling said useless holes contributes nothing to society even though it provides 100% employment.

Do you have a shortage of holes in your streets?

"The employment corps could address a host of national human and physical infrastructure needs including the building and restoration of roads, highways, dams, museums, parks, the postal service, child care centers, health clinics and schools.

"It could serve as a pilot site for the implementation of innovative green technologies that would enhance our environmental health. And the jobs could offer decent pay and benefits.

"We propose that the minimum salary for jobs in the employment corps would be $23,000 and provide a benefits package that would include the health insurance options offered to all federal employees. We estimate that the average cost per job directly created by the employment corps would be $50,000 including..."

Federal Law Requires Job Creation - NYTimes.com

 

[alan1]

This Government owes ME and the people NOTHING but Respect, Dignity and LIBERTY. Period.

Takes this shit to the EU you fucking clown.

Ready for that bad news? This government confers respect, dignity, and liberty on the 1% of voters who fund its politicians' election campaigns and retirements. Maybe you'll find what you're looking for in Poland or Ukraine?

"America’s workers would not be subjected to low wage jobs if they were assured of employment at non-poverty wages. Maintenance of full employment with available jobs offering livable wages would accomplish that goal. To get from here to there would require the United States to comply with the terms of an existing law, the Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act of 1978."

Federal Law Requires Job Creation - NYTimes.com

haha

Jimmy Carter is your hero.

 

[alan1]

Sounds outlandish, doesn't it?

"A right to a job may sound outlandish, but it’s common sense. You need dollars to eat, and unless you steal the dollars, you generally have to earn them.

"If the government wants to protect property with cops, courts, and prisons, issue a single, common currency, and tax and fine us in it, it should at least guarantee we can work for our own dollars.

"Politicians ramble about equality of opportunity and the dignity of work, but to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, we need boots.

"And lest our boots stomp each other’s necks in senseless competition for too few jobs, we need a job guarantee.

"A job guarantee isn’t that radical.

"Thomas Paine proposed one in 1791.

"In 1944, FDR included the right to a living wage job in his Second Bill of Rights and his Republican opponent promised state-ensured employment.

"The Universal Declaration of Human Rights enshrined the right to work and philosophers Rawls and Dewey advocated government provide enough work.

"LBJ deliberated a JG and Martin Luther King Jr., demanded one."

Your Government Owes You a Job | The Nation

Since US Capitalism prefers extracting wealth as opposed to producing wealth leading to a situation where median household income today, adjusted for inflation, is lower than it was in 1989, it becomes clear that US capitalism no longer delivers the goods for a majority of its citizens.

The democratic solution calls for government to provide what the private sector is no longer capable of providing.

Well, we could take every unemployed US citizen and give them jobs.
Pay half of them to dig holes and pay the other half to fill the holes. 100% employment achieved.
Unfortunately, digging useless holes, then filling said useless holes contributes nothing to society even though it provides 100% employment.

Do you have a shortage of holes in your streets?

"The employment corps could address a host of national human and physical infrastructure needs including the building and restoration of roads, highways, dams, museums, parks, the postal service, child care centers, health clinics and schools.

"It could serve as a pilot site for the implementation of innovative green technologies that would enhance our environmental health. And the jobs could offer decent pay and benefits.

"We propose that the minimum salary for jobs in the employment corps would be $23,000 and provide a benefits package that would include the health insurance options offered to all federal employees. We estimate that the average cost per job directly created by the employment corps would be $50,000 including..."

Federal Law Requires Job Creation - NYTimes.com

That 'wooshing' sound is the point zipping over your head.
But hey, if $23,000 is an acceptable living wage for you, go for it, and good luck.

 

[georgephillip]

Starting salary $25.00 an hr.
Six weeks vacation to start
Unlimited paid sick days
Ten paid hoildays per year.
Six paid personal days.

How's this sound....
Would you like anything else...
How about the company pays your housing costs?
Rent or mortgage up to $30,000.00 per year.

If this is not acceptable the company will consider upping it's offer......

Geez..... this site is really attracting the way out lefties.

Actually...

"It may sound expensive, but a JG would pay for itself. “Deficit owls” argue we can afford much more federal spending of this type. Remember, current anti-poverty programs like unemployment insurance pay people not to work, destroying human capital, sales, output, and the tax base. Estimated spending for a national infrastructure JG is $750 billion; bottom-up models, cheaper. JG outlays would replace or reduce the costs of much current anti-poverty spending (roughly $746 billion), with exponential benefits. The Treasury should finance a JG, but national, state or local agencies could administer it."

What do you have to lose except poverty itself?

Your Government Owes You a Job | The Nation

 

[georgephillip]

This Government owes ME and the people NOTHING but Respect, Dignity and LIBERTY. Period.

Takes this shit to the EU you fucking clown.

Ready for that bad news? This government confers respect, dignity, and liberty on the 1% of voters who fund its politicians' election campaigns and retirements. Maybe you'll find what you're looking for in Poland or Ukraine?

"America’s workers would not be subjected to low wage jobs if they were assured of employment at non-poverty wages. Maintenance of full employment with available jobs offering livable wages would accomplish that goal. To get from here to there would require the United States to comply with the terms of an existing law, the Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act of 1978."

Federal Law Requires Job Creation - NYTimes.com

haha

Jimmy Carter is your hero.

Not really.
What made you draw that particular asinine conclusion?

 

[Samson]

The only thing I am owed by my government is the one thing they are abysmally failing at, protecting my Constitutional rights.

If it makes you feel any better, on a daily basis they're getting more successful at collecting taxes.

 

[georgephillip]

Well, we could take every unemployed US citizen and give them jobs.
Pay half of them to dig holes and pay the other half to fill the holes. 100% employment achieved.
Unfortunately, digging useless holes, then filling said useless holes contributes nothing to society even though it provides 100% employment.

Do you have a shortage of holes in your streets?

"The employment corps could address a host of national human and physical infrastructure needs including the building and restoration of roads, highways, dams, museums, parks, the postal service, child care centers, health clinics and schools.

"It could serve as a pilot site for the implementation of innovative green technologies that would enhance our environmental health. And the jobs could offer decent pay and benefits.

"We propose that the minimum salary for jobs in the employment corps would be $23,000 and provide a benefits package that would include the health insurance options offered to all federal employees. We estimate that the average cost per job directly created by the employment corps would be $50,000 including..."

Federal Law Requires Job Creation - NYTimes.com

That 'wooshing' sound is the point zipping over your head.
But hey, if $23,000 is an acceptable living wage for you, go for it, and good luck.

Would you prefer $0 per year?

 

[alan1]

Ready for that bad news? This government confers respect, dignity, and liberty on the 1% of voters who fund its politicians' election campaigns and retirements. Maybe you'll find what you're looking for in Poland or Ukraine?

"America’s workers would not be subjected to low wage jobs if they were assured of employment at non-poverty wages. Maintenance of full employment with available jobs offering livable wages would accomplish that goal. To get from here to there would require the United States to comply with the terms of an existing law, the Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act of 1978."

Federal Law Requires Job Creation - NYTimes.com

haha

Jimmy Carter is your hero.

Not really.
Why made you draw that particular asinine conclusion?

Your support for the Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act of 1978.
Perhaps you didn't realize Jimmy Carter was president at that time.

 

[Erand7899]

The United Sates is the greatest society in history. The Soviet Union collapsed ignominiously.

So, Barak Obama and his Marxists acolytes want to repeat the Soviet experiment.

Why?

Pathological jealousy seems the only plausible answer. And they instrument is utter and complete Control of our lives...just like in the failed Soviet Union.

What similarities do you find between the current political economy of the US and that of 1917 Russia?

No one is advocating for complete control of your life.
If you're happy as a pawn of rent seekers, feel free to suffer for as long as you can manage.
If you're among the majority of Americans who've noticed how Finance Capitalism's ability to provide quality jobs is sadly lacking, public jobs could help you find your bootstraps:

"America has achieved the distinction of becoming the country with the highest level of income inequality among the advanced countries.

"While there is no single number that can depict all aspects of society’s inequality, matters have become worse in every dimension: more money goes to the top (more than a fifth of all income goes to the top 1%), more people are in poverty at the bottom, and the middle class—long the core strength of our society—has seen its income stagnate.

"Median household income, adjusted for inflation, today is lower than it was in 1989, a quarter century ago.[1]

"An economy in which most citizens see no progress, year after year, is an economy that is failing to perform in the way it should. Indeed, there is a vicious circle: our high inequality is one of the major contributing factors to our weak economy and our low growth."

Joseph Stiglitz | Why Inequality Matters and What Can Be Done About It

Income inequality doesn't have a damn thing to do with this weak economy. Both the weak economy and increasing income inequality are the result of excessive regulation, poor fiscal policy, and poor monetary policy.

Any endeavor that is burdened with tens of thousands of pages of government regulation, is doomed to failure. The same people that find it impossible to manage the federal government properly, are trying to manage an economy that they don't even understand.

The current growth in income inequality is simply the result of the Fed throwing free money at banks, and those banks handing that money over to their friends to invest in the stock market. But that money also covers the massive debt that the government is running up. Government feeding upon itself, while the buzzards take their share.

This economy and the lack of jobs can be solved with one legislative measure. Nullify every regulation written since 1990, with the exception of those absolutely necessary to implement existing law.

 

[Katzndogz]

Starting salary $25.00 an hr.
Six weeks vacation to start
Unlimited paid sick days
Ten paid hoildays per year.
Six paid personal days.

How's this sound....
Would you like anything else...
How about the company pays your housing costs?
Rent or mortgage up to $30,000.00 per year.

If this is not acceptable the company will consider upping it's offer......

Geez..... this site is really attracting the way out lefties.

Actually...

"It may sound expensive, but a JG would pay for itself. “Deficit owls” argue we can afford much more federal spending of this type. Remember, current anti-poverty programs like unemployment insurance pay people not to work, destroying human capital, sales, output, and the tax base. Estimated spending for a national infrastructure JG is $750 billion; bottom-up models, cheaper. JG outlays would replace or reduce the costs of much current anti-poverty spending (roughly $746 billion), with exponential benefits. The Treasury should finance a JG, but national, state or local agencies could administer it."

What do you have to lose except poverty itself?

Your Government Owes You a Job | The Nation

Those jobs produce nothing. However, I agree that rather than give people welfare or unemployment, they should be given work to do in exchange for benefits. I also agree that the laziness of prisoners would be greatly reduced by the use of chain gangs.

It's the work to be done that the leeches refuse. Sure, put the welfare recipients to work on road crews filling potholes, they just won't do it. They have to have an incentive, like no money at all if they refuse to work. Now we have a discussion.

 

[The T]

The United Sates is the greatest society in history. The Soviet Union collapsed ignominiously.

So, Barak Obama and his Marxists acolytes want to repeat the Soviet experiment.

Why?

Pathological jealousy seems the only plausible answer. And they instrument is utter and complete Control of our lives...just like in the failed Soviet Union.

What similarities do you find between the current political economy of the US and that of 1917 Russia?

No one is advocating for complete control of your life.
If you're happy as a pawn of rent seekers, feel free to suffer for as long as you can manage.
If you're among the majority of Americans who've noticed how Finance Capitalism's ability to provide quality jobs is sadly lacking, public jobs could help you find your bootstraps:

"America has achieved the distinction of becoming the country with the highest level of income inequality among the advanced countries.

"While there is no single number that can depict all aspects of society’s inequality, matters have become worse in every dimension: more money goes to the top (more than a fifth of all income goes to the top 1%), more people are in poverty at the bottom, and the middle class—long the core strength of our society—has seen its income stagnate.

"Median household income, adjusted for inflation, today is lower than it was in 1989, a quarter century ago.[1]

"An economy in which most citizens see no progress, year after year, is an economy that is failing to perform in the way it should. Indeed, there is a vicious circle: our high inequality is one of the major contributing factors to our weak economy and our low growth."

Joseph Stiglitz | Why Inequality Matters and What Can Be Done About It

Income inequality doesn't have a damn thing to do with this weak economy. Both the weak economy and increasing income inequality are the result of excessive regulation, poor fiscal policy, and poor monetary policy.

Any endeavor that is burdened with tens of thousands of pages of government regulation, is doomed to failure. The same people that find it impossible to manage the federal government properly, are trying to manage an economy that they don't even understand.

The current growth in income inequality is simply the result of the Fed throwing free money at banks, and those banks handing that money over to their friends to invest in the stock market. But that money also covers the massive debt that the government is running up. Government feeding upon itself, while the buzzards take their share.

This economy and the lack of jobs can be solved with one legislative measure. Nullify every regulation written since 1990, with the exception of those absolutely necessary to implement existing law.

And Get RID of the intrusive TAX CODE.

 

[Stephanie]

the Democrat/Socialist/commie party isn't even hiding it anymore

they are now in your FACE with this socialist/commie shit

fall for it at your own peril and being a free person...that's THEIR PLAN for you

 

[Stephanie]

This Government owes ME and the people NOTHING but Respect, Dignity and LIBERTY. Period.

Takes this shit to the EU you fucking clown.

Ready for that bad news? This government confers respect, dignity, and liberty on the 1% of voters who fund its politicians' election campaigns and retirements. Maybe you'll find what you're looking for in Poland or Ukraine?

"America’s workers would not be subjected to low wage jobs if they were assured of employment at non-poverty wages. Maintenance of full employment with available jobs offering livable wages would accomplish that goal. To get from here to there would require the United States to comply with the terms of an existing law, the Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act of 1978."

Federal Law Requires Job Creation - NYTimes.com

and you fall for that..maybe you like being OWNED by others who will be your masters... but not many in this country do
yet thankfully
you are loyal comrade to the state...scary

 

[Londoner]

The United Sates is the greatest society in history. The Soviet Union collapsed ignominiously.

So, Barak Obama and his Marxists acolytes want to repeat the Soviet experiment.

Why?

Pathological jealousy seems the only plausible answer. And they instrument is utter and complete Control of our lives...just like in the failed Soviet Union.

Ronald Reagan created more government jobs than Carter, Clinton or Obama.

George W Bush got caught illegally wiretapping the communications of US Citizens before being forced to submit his spying to judicial oversight. He created the Patriot Act and the Department of Homeland Security, two of the most Soviet style power grabs in my lifetime. With the help of the Rightwing propaganda machine, which flashed color coded terror alerts all day, Bush, like the Soviets, used fear to create a surveillance bureaucracy.

When a minority of citizens on the Left expressed worry over these dangerous power grabs, Republican lemmings shouted down anyone who dared question government.

[When the Right holds the reigns of power, their voters turn into apparachicks. They become obedient attack dogs for government power]

Republicans have grown government more than any political group in my lifetime. When your side controlled the presidency and congress during 1/2 the Bush years, they voted for 4 debt ceiling increases. Problem is, Fox News and Rightwing media didn't report it. Not one sentence in a blog. Do you think Republican voters complained or criticized their leaders for these debt ceiling increases? Answer: no. Why? Because the average Republican voter didn't even know it happened. This fact suggests a degree of media control that rivals the old Soviet Union. For this reason I think it is ironic when people from the Right accuse the Left of striving to make the USA more like the Soviet Union.

We expect the Left to grow government power. This is in their platform. But your side is supposed to be against it. We count on you to be a check on the growth of government, which is why we're begging you to turn off Fox News and hold your party accountable.

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

You have a right to contract with others in an employment capacity, but you do not have a right to a job. That would mean that others must provide their capital, their property for your benefit, which would be a violation of private property.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

Sounds outlandish, doesn't it?

"A right to a job may sound outlandish, but it’s common sense. You need dollars to eat, and unless you steal the dollars, you generally have to earn them.

"If the government wants to protect property with cops, courts, and prisons, issue a single, common currency, and tax and fine us in it, it should at least guarantee we can work for our own dollars.

"Politicians ramble about equality of opportunity and the dignity of work, but to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, we need boots.

"And lest our boots stomp each other’s necks in senseless competition for too few jobs, we need a job guarantee.

"A job guarantee isn’t that radical.

"Thomas Paine proposed one in 1791.

"In 1944, FDR included the right to a living wage job in his Second Bill of Rights and his Republican opponent promised state-ensured employment.

"The Universal Declaration of Human Rights enshrined the right to work and philosophers Rawls and Dewey advocated government provide enough work.

"LBJ deliberated a JG and Martin Luther King Jr., demanded one."

Your Government Owes You a Job | The Nation

Since US Capitalism prefers extracting wealth as opposed to producing wealth leading to a situation where median household income today, adjusted for inflation, is lower than it was in 1989, it becomes clear that US capitalism no longer delivers the goods for a majority of its citizens.

The democratic solution calls for government to provide what the private sector is no longer capable of providing.

There is a word for what yo just described, communism. Why do you think it is going to work better now than it did in the past?

Wait, I know, you finally figured out how to make magic money work, right?

 

[LordBrownTrout]

The govt owes me nothing. Govt owes the constitution an apology.

 

[Stephanie]

The govt owes me nothing. Govt owes the constitution an apology.

and we the people need to get this "government" under control before it too late, if's it's not already

 

[Stephanie]

Sounds outlandish, doesn't it?

"A right to a job may sound outlandish, but it’s common sense. You need dollars to eat, and unless you steal the dollars, you generally have to earn them.

"If the government wants to protect property with cops, courts, and prisons, issue a single, common currency, and tax and fine us in it, it should at least guarantee we can work for our own dollars.

"Politicians ramble about equality of opportunity and the dignity of work, but to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, we need boots.

"And lest our boots stomp each other’s necks in senseless competition for too few jobs, we need a job guarantee.

"A job guarantee isn’t that radical.

"Thomas Paine proposed one in 1791.

"In 1944, FDR included the right to a living wage job in his Second Bill of Rights and his Republican opponent promised state-ensured employment.

"The Universal Declaration of Human Rights enshrined the right to work and philosophers Rawls and Dewey advocated government provide enough work.

"LBJ deliberated a JG and Martin Luther King Jr., demanded one."

Your Government Owes You a Job | The Nation

Since US Capitalism prefers extracting wealth as opposed to producing wealth leading to a situation where median household income today, adjusted for inflation, is lower than it was in 1989, it becomes clear that US capitalism no longer delivers the goods for a majority of its citizens.

The democratic solution calls for government to provide what the private sector is no longer capable of providing.

There is a word for what yo just described, communism. Why do you think it is going to work better now than it did in the past?

Wait, I know, you finally figured out how to make magic money work, right?

the nation and NYslimes told him so...that's all he needs

 

[LordBrownTrout]

Sounds outlandish, doesn't it?

"A right to a job may sound outlandish, but it’s common sense. You need dollars to eat, and unless you steal the dollars, you generally have to earn them.

"If the government wants to protect property with cops, courts, and prisons, issue a single, common currency, and tax and fine us in it, it should at least guarantee we can work for our own dollars.

"Politicians ramble about equality of opportunity and the dignity of work, but to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, we need boots.

"And lest our boots stomp each other’s necks in senseless competition for too few jobs, we need a job guarantee.

"A job guarantee isn’t that radical.

"Thomas Paine proposed one in 1791.

"In 1944, FDR included the right to a living wage job in his Second Bill of Rights and his Republican opponent promised state-ensured employment.

"The Universal Declaration of Human Rights enshrined the right to work and philosophers Rawls and Dewey advocated government provide enough work.

"LBJ deliberated a JG and Martin Luther King Jr., demanded one."

Your Government Owes You a Job | The Nation

Since US Capitalism prefers extracting wealth as opposed to producing wealth leading to a situation where median household income today, adjusted for inflation, is lower than it was in 1989, it becomes clear that US capitalism no longer delivers the goods for a majority of its citizens.

The democratic solution calls for government to provide what the private sector is no longer capable of providing.

Actually, I wouldnt trust walking on a sidewalk built by govt. What they do provide is an excellent example of incompetence, irresponsibility, unaccountability, and ineptitude.