I think it remains a valid question though. What if we had handled the unemployment by creating infrastructure jobs instead of universal handouts?
That has the added benefit of increasing the productive output of our economy.
That has the added benefit of increasing the productive output of our economy.
When times are good though, we should be increasing taxation and investing in infrastructure. Instead, the US Republican party sought to create a massive tax cut during economic boom, which means that we are in a worse financial situation when times have become rough.
Universal handouts weren't to handle unemployment. They were to pay people to stay home.
I agree with the premise, but I would like to know how to accomplish something like this. Especially if you have domain knowledge, it could be enlightening to the HN readership. There are a lot of accomplished people who read these forums, and it would be cool to see a seed get planted.
In my mind it’s super simple. Money for labor. Problem is, most Americans would revolt if you asked them to break a sweat.
Germany does this with some amount of succes but I don't know how they do it. German socialism seems to work at the expense of a zero point growth figure. They still pay the solidarity tax for East Germany.
I don’t know if it’s the perfect solution but it feels more appropriate than our current approach. I don’t know much about the German way, I just know we pay for idle bodies while we have a lot of infrastructure that needs rebuilding.
It might be worth considering who "they" are (from your insanely outraging "why can't they lay bricks?" akin to "let them eat cake"). And why wouldn't "they" sweat for a good wage? Seriously, do some soul searching.
Your world is to make people starve or lay bricks?
But the broader question, could/should the US use this moment of mass unemployment to create infrastructure jobs: IMO, yes. But it’ll never happen because someone will say the word “socialism” and it’ll immediately become politically unimaginable.
Of course, since they're apparently anathema to all but the leftiest lefties, we're back at square one trying to figure out what to do.