Re: ELR propositions

["James R. Olson, jr." <jhavok@xxxxxxxx>]

At 09:48 AM 3/4/97 +0100, you wrote:
>Mason A. Clarck 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?
>
Works Progress Administration, essentially an ELR program.  There were a lt
of different programs under its umbrella, ranging from the arts to
infrastructure repair (gangs of WPA workers leaning on their shovels).

An important factor in the distaste of the working for WPA was the common
notion that if you were out of work it was your own damn fault (see Studs
Terkel's excellent oral history of the depression, _Hard Times_, and George
Orwell's _The Road To Wiggan Pier_ for documentation of this attitude).
Since this attitude is common today as well, it will be an vital obstacle
for any ELR scheme to overcome.