Comment on Why are there no jobs programs anymore?
eyesaremosaics@lemmy.zip 2 days agoOk it is a fair comparison, especially when compared to historical examples where the jobs program was an alternative to poverty. Here I’m talking about a program that is separate from welfare, it is voluntary, where the person chooses they want a job and the government provides it.
I had some more of a look and there is a good page about it here- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Job_guarantee . There are proposed programs but they aren’t generally implemented at the moment
General_Effort@lemmy.world 1 day ago
There’s one thing about such a provided job that must be clear. It is the worst job in the whole economy. If you thought your job was worse, you could quit and take that guaranteed job instead. Either that guaranteed job is sub-minimum wage or more grueling than free jobs.
I doubt such a thing is politically sustainable. That is, paying welfare to people who chose not to accept a job being offered. Something to think about in connection with the above.
The wiki article notes that the 1936 constitution of the Soviet Union had a job guarantee. It also had this (in a rather more prominent place):
ARTICLE 12. In the U.S.S.R. work is a duty and a matter of honor for every able-bodied citizen, in accordance with the principle: “He who does not work, neither shall he eat.”
The principle applied in the U.S.S.R. is that of socialism: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his work.”