A member of Congress with a famous family name is proposing a simple solution to the bringing down the unemployment rate: Put approximately 15 million people on the federal payroll with a $40,000 a year salary. The proposal would revive concepts that saw a Civilian Conservation Corps plant trees, build dams, and forge roads and a Works Progress Administration that built airports and paid authors and photographers to ply their trade on behalf of the US Government. As fanatical as I am about the proper role of government, even I have to admit that the CCC and WPA probably represent the best instincts of government. Maybe I have a soft spot for the concept because I grew up swimming and camping at a place built by the CCC in the late 30s. Say what you will about it having been a “make work” project, but their efforts have held up pretty well under 80 years of continual use.
Maybe more importantly, the CCC and WPA made constructive work part of the requirement to receive federal assistance. In the 30s, your options were pretty much work or starve. I wonder, though, if those concepts would still hold up. How many people receiving federal assistance would be willing to go to work camps in the wilderness, to sweep their cities streets, or to lift a hand to earn what we now think of as entitlements? As a result of their experiences during the Depression, my grandfather saved soap slivers that he eventually pressed together into a new bar and my grandmother used the same teabag for cup after cup of tea despite the need for them to do these things being long past. When’s the last time any of us even thought about doing something like that?
I never in my life thought I could be convinced to line up with Representative Jesse Jackson Jr on an issue, but I think this one at least has academic merit. I don’t necessarily agree with all his reasoning or the total numbers he’s talking about, but I have to admit I really like the concept. Let’s face it, we’re going to pay unemployment, welfare, and a raft of other “entitlements” anyway, so why not make productivity a requirement for receiving unemployment and other funds from the government?
This is probably the point where someone is going to come to my door to collect my Republican Party membership card.
JEFFREYTHARP.COM 
My good friend Jeff. Lay off the coffee or martinis (shaken not stirred) or home brew or whatever it is you have been drinking. I too had grandparents and indeed my father who all lived through the Great Depression.
The New Deal is largely believed by most economists to have actually extended the depression. For all the good things accomplished by the men of the CCC (I too have spent many hours enjoying their work), it was a fictitious job program that actually encouraged men from seeking actual gainful employment.
I served on our local Board of Social Services when we saw Welfare reform. We literally saw Welfare rolls drop when folks were forced into “Welfare to Work.” Programs. Those programs were not designed to “give” work to folks but to rather give them experience because it had been so long since they last worked. The immediate reduction was observed due to the fact many folks were actually already working!
I am always amazed at how well intentioned social programs actually encourage folks NOT to work. Welfare will keep you for only 2 years of a lifetime now. So, folks that are so minded take that two years. Our government’s solution to unemployment is extension of unemployment benefits to two years! What do folks do? They take the two years!
What do they do after those two years? They get a job and conveniently get hurt. You see, there hasn’t been any form of Worker’s Compensation reform yet. It doesn’t really matter where the check comes from, as long as it comes with no catches.
Jessie Jackson Jr’s best idea will be when he decides that he should no longer run for Congress. He would do well to encourage all his colleagues to do the same.
I too have a GOP card. I am ready to voluntarily exchange mine for a libertarian card. All I see from both parties is more government and more interference in my daily life.
I don’t want them in my bedroom. I don’t want them in my schools. I don’t want them in my business. And I sure don’t want them in my wallet. Unfortunately, they are in them all.
Cheers!
JMetz
I know, I know. Throughly impractical, morally questionable, and completely unaffordable. I still like the basic idea of people getting something, giving something back so there’s something to show for it. Better yet, the idea of a few million people put to work retrofitting and repairing the 60 year old infrastructure that’s going to fall down around our ears.