Re: ELR propositions

["Mason A. Clark" <masonc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 09:48 AM 3/4/97 +0100, you wrote:
>Mason A. Clark wrote
>
>>    I'm old enough to remember the gangs of WPA workers
>>    leaning on their shovels - a sight that sickened my
>>    father - why I remember it.  Can the government, run
>>    by kids who don't remember, now do better?
>
>What is WPA? Is it like the Ateliers Nationaux we had in France in 1848?
>

  The WPA "Works Progress Administration" was an "employer of
  last resort" - a part of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal.
  It was a job-creation program and many people were usefully
  employed in their crafts.  The memory to which I referred
  was a local one of seeing small projects involving many
  men inefficiently used - "leaning on their shovels" much
  of the day.  This resulted from the desperate need to quickly
  provide jobs: "diggging holes and filling them" if that was all
  the government could think of quickly.  As someone else pointed
  out here, many of the jobs were done well by men working hard.
  WPA project results are to be seen around the country today.

  If an Employer of Last Resort program were debated in the
  U.S. Congress today, the spectre of useless work would rise.

  I would urge that any ELR proposal include a list of valuable
  and popular projects.

  Reconstruction of the inner cities where so many of the
  unemployed live would be one idea.  Tear down dangerous
  buildings, repair roads, sidewalks, utilities, build
  houses, parks and schools.

  Many of the unemployed can be trained to do much of this
  work. Specifically: robust young blacks and latinos can
  learn construction trades if given the chance.  The new
  cedar roof over my head is proof for me.


      Mason
 ---------------------------------------------------
   Mason A. Clark        masonc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
      The Healing Wisdom of Dr. P.P Quimby
      A comet no one saw. The weather.
      Political Economics illustrated
         http://www.netcom.com/~masonc
         http://www.geocities/CapitolHill/3210
      The Boskin CPI attack on Social Security
         http://www.naz.com/personal/masonc/boskin.html
   New ! Vickrey's last paper (October 5, 1996):
   15 Fatal Fallacies of Financial Fundamentalism
     http://www.netcom.com/~masonc/vickrey.html
 ---------------------------------------------------