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Why Doesn't the Govt. Sponsor Jobs Programs Like Those During the Depression?

Name: Ellen Judson
City & State: Laredo, TX

construction worker; via Flickr
Question: Why doesn't the government sponsor jobs programs similar to those by Roosevelt during the Great Depression, such as rebuilding infrastructure, building new energy grids, alternative transportation, a decent bus system or train system?

Paul Solman: But that's what the Obama Administration says it is TRYING to do, no? "Shovel-ready" projects, they've been called: infrastructure investments that have passed all the necessary tests (environmental, for example) and are ready to roll. We chronicled the ambition last December.

But in the same piece, economist Ed Yardeni pointed out some of the possible pitfalls and let me tell you something: It's not so easy to spend massively, quickly, AND efficiently on infrastructure, it turns out. I was told just the other day about a contractor in Florida -- from an impeccable source, deep off-the-record. The contractor had his employees doing busy work on a federally funded infrastructure project in order to spend the allocated money FAST ENOUGH.

Meanwhile, with Republicans seizing on the rising debt taken on to PAY for the new projects as a clear and future danger, the public has become skeptical of government spending.

-- Posted October 26, 2009 | Comments (3) | Permalink

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3 Comments

William Smith said:

The government doesn't commit itself to programs that create jobs because the people we've got up in Washington don't really care about ordinary Americans. All they care about are the corporations who make it worth their while to serve in government.


 
mulp said:

Watching the PBS American Experience The 30s series episode on the CCC, as I imagine the original questioner had, the question again is, why don't we have a CCC type progrm that, as in the 30s:
- targets young adults without skills from families
- uses the military training and organization model (surely some retired military trainers are looking for ways to continue serving?)
- pays about $900 a month with $750 sent home to their family and $150 a month for spending money
- provides clothing, room, board, comprehensive medical care, and training in camps like the military
- employs engineers, agriculture, and conservation experts to direct the work and training
- rebuilds and restores national, state, and local parks as a first priority because these can be spread around everywhere and provide visible results
- cleans up brown fields and makes them productive with community farms and power projects

As the episode notes, FDR was very political, but the value to society was certainly very high because young men who didn't have work and who weren't likely to get work soon were employed and given both the skill of working as well as useful work skills, but communities got real capital investments that they otherwise wouldn't have afforded themselves, capital infrastructure that in many communities is still giving back to the community today three quarters of a century later.

But perhaps in our modern economy, capitalism does not mean creating productive capital, but instead taking capital assets and consuming them because we are a nation in its old age and like all old folk, you consume the capital you built up when you were young and prouctive...


 
Unsympathetic said:

Actually, "the public" has been aware of massive Federal debt spending for decades. This isn't new. However, normal people like myself can't match the campaign subsidies from Goldman Sachs, so our views get no traction.

Republicans have not been economically conservative since before Reagan - and they do not propose to stop debt spending in any way.

In fact, the only proposal Republicans have had for the past 20 years is to cut taxes. However, they had their time to try their policies under Bush.. and failed miserably. Go read Bruce Bartlett if you want to understand the incoherence of the Republican economic agenda.


 

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