An influential left-wing think tank has called for the government to create millions of jobs for those without a college degree, leading to headlines like The Nation’s declaration that “It’s Time for the Government to Give Everyone a Job.”
One fatal flaw of such a plan was exposed in the comments section of that article, when a commentator named Ira Dember pointed out the perverse incentives that would result if the government guaranteed jobs to only those without a college degree.
Namely, that there is little incentive to undertake the expense of going to college in the hopes of finding employment, when the government will guarantee employment to only those who choose to eschew higher education!
More @ Mises
Thanks. You're very kind to repost this. And you quoted me from a different comment of mine, just fyi.
ReplyDeleteAs I wrote in the source comments, jobs would pop up if we did away with the minimum wage. (I currently favour a minimum wage for temporary political reasons, but that's an entirely different topic. Politics is complicated.)
And if we protected our trade, then the US could trade its robot-produced goods for the world's resources. So, there should be jobs-a-plenty for Americans. We could become again the world's factory. So, Americans would have jobs even if the rest of the world lived in poverty supplying us.
Of course, if North Carolina were to secede, then protectionist trade wouldn't be so potent. Because NC has such a smaller economy on its own.
There is legitimate concern that a few could accumulate limited capital in the US while the rest are left without opportunity. Robots could further reduce opportunities. But workfare isn't a good way out.
Assuming a problem did arise:
The capitalist solution is let private property owners do as they will.
The socialist solution is to confiscate all property, direct it by the state.
The distributist (my) solution is to encourage smallness, to break up large accumulation.
Capitalists and socialists never like to admit smallness is another alternative.
All of that said, I believe protectionist trade and other policy changes (end the Federal Reserve Bank, drastically reduce immigration) would restore the US middle class. So, we don't need workfare and don't need government intervention currently.
The distributist (my) solution is to encourage smallness, to break up large accumulation.
DeleteCapitalists and socialists never like to admit smallness is another alternative.
Thanks.