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Thread going off course...
It's about more people than jobs available. If 20 honest people who want to work apply for one job, 19 will be without a job.
America will have to prepare itself for the sight of expanding slums, shanty towns, and the increase of more poor people living on the streets. That's America's future.
The public gets the value or "the profit" from people picking up litter on the highways, painting dilapidated buildings in urban areas, doing maintenance on trails in national forests, etc.
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There is no "profit" because it is being done by incompetent workers who will be paid more than the result is worth, plus the cost of outfitting them and transporting them to the jobsite.
The government could hire private contractors to do those things, who would do it cheaper and expertly and would need to hire currently unemployed workers to do it. But, classically capitalist as it would be, there would still be people to scream bloody murder about their hard earned money being stolen from them by big government.
on the individual scale nothing. but as to the unseen puppeteer--- if they identify a group that consistently does not produce, they might look the other way while 21 million illegals sneak in and take their section 8 housing and place in the welfare line. people that wont work eventually get left at the bus stop.
I realize this is always an issue, but right now we have a great number of people that simply have no power left to do anything. Their money and possessions are gone, along with their home, so what do they do?. There is this tenting community in RI, but they are on state land and are probably going to be evicted, they tried, but evidently will fail.
Its just frustrating, capitalism is cannibalism, and normal people are always the ones who get dumped on.
Just a few years back we believed in the concept of government as the employer of last resort, of course that went by the wayside during the Reagan revolution and as witnessed by the response to the modest economic stimulus of recent date, the idea of the government putting people back to work still hasn't seen a revival.
But, at some point the social cost of large numbers of American workers, out of work, and out of benefits may hit a critical mass and the idea of putting folks to work on publicly financed projects may again be viewed favorably, particularly when the unemployed can no longer be stereotyped and simply lazy slackers waiting for the government dime, i.e. personal stories of highly educated folks who have worked all of their lives but can't find a job to save themselves becomes more apparent.
There is no "profit" because it is being done by incompetent workers who will be paid more than the result is worth, plus the cost of outfitting them and transporting them to the jobsite.
The government could hire private contractors to do those things, who would do it cheaper and expertly and would need to hire currently unemployed workers to do it. But, classically capitalist as it would be, there would still be people to scream bloody murder about their hard earned money being stolen from them by big government.
As part of the New Deal, FDR put many Americans back to work in g'ment projects, many of those projects included building National Parks (trails, buildings, bathrooms, etc).
This helped to fuel the economy by providing people with money, money to spend not only on groceries and utilities, but also with disposable income as well.
So, in short, such Public Works Programs suggested would indeed "see a profit", a profit for everyone from deli's to work clothes vendors, as people would actually have money to spend.
Why don't we conscript them? Even if it's not military service they can still do something of value, sort of like the CCC or the other New Deal era programs.
It would be cheaper for the govt. to pay them to maintain a community park, assist in repairing a public works project, or sit in a foxhole on the Mexican border then it would be for us to wait for them to find a high paying job.
If forcing everybody to work is set as the central principle of your philosophical construct, and then you try to build a society solely on that objective, you will certainly wind up with the opposite of what civilization has tried to achieve.
The whole objective of modern scientific industry is to create constant output from less work, not to create more output from constant work. Striving for constant work is not a worthwhile goal.
Conscription would be a terrible idea. Now you want to rip fathers away from their families and send them off to forced labor camps in the desert.
I see another problem that I do not hear about often. What type of work were the newly unemployed doing and what were they getting paid? Why do I ask this? Many people have lived over their heads and have been comfortable with a false sense of job security. How many people spent too much money not only on a home, but also vehicles, televisions, cell phones, computers, etc. and were living check to check with nothing saved to cover their bills for at least six months in the event something happened? I would have to say far too many is the answer.
People should understand that this is a cycle and this can happen at any time. When things get better economically many will start to realize that they need some money saved to fall back on if things get rough. This will go on for some time until everyone gets comfortable with their situation and the cycle will start again.
I believe that another problem with the unemployed is due to the amount of people who lost a relatively good paying job that refuse to work at anything less. If people look around there are unskilled labor jobs that people can still get but they are not well paying jobs. I personally would work two lower paying jobs if I had to. If I was completely out of work I would look at fast food places, supermarkets, cab companies, anywhere.
I have worked two jobs in the past when I was younger. I worked as a mechanic for a cab company at night from 10 PM until 7 AM and I worked at fast food Pudgie's Chicken from 11 AM until 8 PM. I was not rich but I definitely made enough money to pay rent and bills in a decent neighborhood. A part of the problem is that a lot of these people that lost their jobs see these jobs as being beneath them. Another problem is that a large number of people lived so far over their heads that the pay from these jobs will not come close to paying their bills.
Now the question is whether or not the general population feels that they should be paying these people for having a false sense of job security while living over their heads and not saving in case times get tough. You see if these people did live to the point where they can cover even a few months of bills in case something happened they would then be able to work a much lower paying job such as I mentioned which would have made the few months of security money last further since it would be supplementing it. This would also have given them the time to figure out how to sell their home, vehicle or anything else in order to down grade enough that these minimal jobs would still be able to keep a roof over their head and food on the table which is all that people really need to live.
Of course people are going to talk about how the housing market is bad and selling a house is out of the question. For these people I will say that there are houses selling but many people would have to sell at a loss. I personally would rather sell and take a loss than have a foreclosure take place. There are too many people whom would refuse to do this feeling that they are entitled to live in an expensive house and not have to get rid of any non-essentials just because they did not plan for the future taking into account what may happen if they lose their jobs.
I personally believe unemployment should only be for a few months and then everyone is on their own. I also believe that these bail outs should not have taken place and all it is doing is ensuring more trouble in the future in the form of the value of the American currency dropping, inflation, ridiculous tax hikes, etc.
Doing it my way would help people to realize what they really need to live rather than what they think they need to live. It may also make them think more responsibly when the economy gets better and they happen to get employment that was similar to the job they lost. Maybe less people will live above their means as quickly as they did.
Do I feel sorry for any of the unemployed? Of course. There are those whom got caught up in a mess even though they may have been financially responsible. Do I feel sorry for the all of the unemployed? No. There are many that simply put themselves in a worse financial situation than they needed to be in some time ago. There are also many who simply will not look for the jobs they feel are beneath them at the moment as well. I do not feel sympathy for any of these people since they in fact brought the financial problems among themselves. A number of these people will finally have to lower their standards of living like many of us have done on our own so that we do not end up in the same mess they are in.
A number of these people will finally have to lower their standards of living like many of us have done on our own so that we do not end up in the same mess they are in.
America will have to prepare itself for the sight of expanding slums, shanty towns, and the increase of more poor people living on the streets. That's America's future.
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