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Dems Go Full Monty on Socialism: Government Jobs For All
Cory Booker (aka, Snowplow Cory), Kristen Gillibrand, and now Bernie Sanders have gone full Socialist. Each has unveiled plans to guarantee a job (paying at least $15 per hour plus benefits) to any and all Americans who want one. Naturally, no word on where the money for this comes from.
I recall seeing a political cartoon from the glory days of the FDR makework programs of the 1930s.
The first panel showed Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt.
Caption: Load up your camels. Mount your asses. I will lead you to the promised land.
Second panel depicted some WPA guys sitting and smoking cigarettes in a half-dug ditch.
Caption: Light up a Camel. Sit on your asses. This is the promised land.
Published in General
I like this idea. I liked it better when it was the plot of the movie Dave.
I want to watch that now…
You diseased maniac.
“The bottom line is we’re not broke, there’s plenty of money, it’s just the government doesn’t have it.”
Rep. Keith Ellison, (D-Minn), Vice-Chair of Democratic National Committee, 2013
That’s really priceless. That’s it in a nutshell isnt it.
He may be an idiot but he, and the others, are very serious about this.
Agreed. Just because he’s an idiot doesn’t mean he isn’t serious…or seriously hazardous to the country. Booker is another case in point.
The saddest/scariest part is that these three are probably worried that actually having the recipients of the money ‘work’ puts them too far to the political Right in their own party. I’m sure they are trying to position themselves as ‘Centrists’ for a general election. This is what a Lefty thinks is Centrist.
The real Left wing is thinking Universal Basic Income and Reparations for Slavery … but even they realize that’s dodgy in a general election.
They’re promising jobs for everybody that wants one, not work for everyone that wants it.
My naïveté is showing
Doesn’t it seem that being that stupid should hurt?
Since thre isn’t a link in the OP, here’s an article about this from The Washington Post. Even if the work was theoretically useful and productive, what quality of work do you suppose you would get when everyone knows that the government is guaranteeing them a job? Some people are going to put in a good day’s work, but if you know that the job is a “right,” how many will come in two hours late or take a nap halfway through the day? If it’s a guarantee, can you be fired?
It will hurt . . . us.
I heard this on radio today and couldn’t believe it. I thought it would take a few more years for that nuttiness to leak out of the imaginary realm into the open.
It wasn’t that long ago that it took a college education to be paid that much (along with having to actually do something). Why don’t we first try a radical experiment like making current welfare recipients do some work at whatever level is possible for them? In other words, try to instill the connection between money and earning it, or else the benefits get reduced. More like life in other words.
The CCC left us some beautiful stone bridges in the Smoky Mountains National Park and probably other lasting tributes to the workers of that bygone age. But they still had a work ethic and some craftsmen’s skills. They didn’t expect pure handouts and they melted back into the work force when the times improved….conditions and results I doubt would show up in today’s culture.
Kinda like the no-work jobs that the Mob demands from corrupted unions? Hmmmmmm.
When the government is required to give you a job, that means that they can tell you to work. And you will be happy with $15 an hour, comrade. Yes, comrade, I know that a meal at McDonalds now costs $57 dollars, but that is not our problem, comrade. You have your Obama phone and we expect you to work hard for a greater societal efficiency comrade.
Pay no attention to those people being lined up against the wall, comrade. Those are enemies of the state trying to undermine our glorious revolution. They will be taken care of.
Reminds me of one of the Miracles of Communism….
We pretend to work
And they pretend to pay us….
Perhaps they could be of some help down in Venezuela.
Ellison’s quote was reported by our local free weekly (now owned by my employer) with the following subhead:
You have to pity writers who lace their news reports with caveats to keep the harpies from tearing the flesh off their bones in the comments. Marx is cool guys, chill! Just sayin’, that’s what the bad guys said! More:
There is no more meaningless, but revelatory, name than “The Inclusive Property Act.” Inclusion is one of those automatically-good words, so when you apply it to Property, it means that whatever you do to Property is good. What they mean is the application of state force to confiscate personal property, so its state-directed distribution includes everyone.
Well, if you can find a more coherent, cogent argument for unlimited access to private property, drop me me a line.
It’s barely one step away from the philosophy that (all) “Private Property is Theft”, a sign I see more & more frequently scrawled around Philly.
You were less cynical when you mostly wrote about gnat.
We have to stop central planning every single thing that we can. A million things will take care of themselves. No one gets it.
When they are talking about asset taxation in any form as if it’s a solution to anything, you know we are in big trouble. Decades of bad policy.
Isn’t any taxing or means testing of Social Security or Medicare an asset tax? How did it come to this?
Legally it’s not an asset tax, because despite the marketing, Social Security isn’t your asset. The benefits paid out are not returning ‘your’ money you contributed during your work career. Your contributions were largely paid out in benefits to others long ago. The benefits paid out to you today are largely from taxes collected from others today. That’s not how it’s presented, but that’s the reality. From a legal perspective it’s no different than food stamps or welfare; and those are means tested.
Right, I get that, but this stuff is progressively funded on the way up and (likely) progressively taken on the way out. The nicest thing you can say is it’s a Rube Goldberg mess of redistribution and intergenerational theft. There is very little illumination of what is really happening.
Also, be sure to vote.
It’s an insurance program. It’s a government mandated and controlled insurance program. All insurance companies do the same thing. The problem is not that they spend money today that is collected today, the problem is that they put a gun to your head to make you pay for insurance you shouldn’t want. Also, they pay out to almost everyone it seems, whether they’ve paid in or not.
It is remarkable how problematic this stuff is vs. how shallow the discussions about it are. Ricochet is a welcome exception.
It’s more like if you don’t have “visible means of support,” they send you to a labor camp. Unemployment goes down to zero forever because it’s the law.