Re: unemployment

[<mosler@xxxxxxxx>]

the fundamental elr proposal is to have the govt offer a job to anyone willing and able to work.
that's ALL.

'full employment AND price stability' is at
www.mosler.org

sure, proponents have other 'pet' proposals
they wish to add on, and critics often focus on those.

does the 'job' matter? sure!  one can hire
to build the panama canal or to blow it up.
goes without saying.  either you believe in
'democracy' etc. or you don't...

elr is at least a monetary issue.  there is no unemployment as we know it without govt. (monetary) taxation.  taxation in itself is a case of
imperfect competition that results in excess
capacity (unemployment) when 'supply' of the
thing needed to pay the tax is 'restricted.'

'with the right to tax in one's currency of issue comes the responsibility to provide the means to obtain the thing needed to pay the tax.'



On Thu, 21 Mar 2002 15:42:32 +0100 Sven R Larson <larson@xxxxxx> wrote:

Scott Simpson wrote:
> I agree that a job guarantee does not necessarily indicate slavery.  However, the vexing question for me has always been what type of jobs. I certainly have great respect for the ELR and other such schemes. Yet I have not heard any particular attention given to the actual jobs that would be available. It has been said, it doesn't matter what kind of job. This ignores a fundamental aspect of work that it is rewarding in ways that go beyond the monetary gain. The type of work offered may be less appealing than unemployment, especially if it means digging holes to bury treasury notes in and digging them up again.<

A job guarantee becomes de facto slavery only when someone cannot choose to stay out of
the program without economic loss. I have discussed this issue at length with, among
others, Mat Forstater and I have never seen him or any other proponent of JG/ELR propose
an income penalty for those who don't participate. On the contrary, I've been reassured
that this is a positive reform, an addition to, not a replacement of, welfare programs.
What remains to be done is a detailed study of existing ELR programs in Europe and how
an implementation of ELR in the States would avoid the drawbacks that these programs
have. But I'm sure that advocates of ELR/JG are underway with such studies, and I look
forward to the results.

/srl

--
Sven R Larson
Ph.D.; Assistant professor of economics
Department of Social Sciences, 22.2
Roskilde University
PB 260
DK-4000 Roskilde, Denmark
http://www.ruc.dk/english/