At a time when many states are at or near record-low unemployment, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is rolling out a plan for a guaranteed Government jobs program. Sanders believes the Federal Government should give a $15 an hour job and full health insurance benefits to anyone who wants them. His announcement comes as companies across the country complain that they cannot find enough qualified workers for the jobs they already have open. Which leads me to wonder what kind of jobs Sanders plans to give those who can’t handle careers already available to them?
Chronic unemployment–and that is really what we are dealing with in those not already working in the current economy–is due to a number of factors. Drug use, alcoholism, disability, lack of education, lack of job skills, mental health issues, criminal records and just plain laziness make a certain percentage of the population unemployable. And it is from that pool of candidates that Bernie Sanders wants to build his Government jobs program.
Sanders envisions these grand public works projects–“rebuilding our infrastructure”–as the base for his “employment for all”. But that plan is based on Depression-era workforce requirements. Today, highways and bridges are built by giant machines operated by a handful of people–not thousands of men wielding pick axes and shovels. Running supplies to work sites requires commercial drivers licenses–which are difficult to get if you have five drunk driving convictions or you can’t pass a drug test.
Sanders also plans to greatly expand the education and health care systems to employ those without the ability to do manual labor. But what do you do with the ever-growing number of registered sex offenders? Those convicted of other violent felonies? Embezzlers and petty thieves? Are those the people you want working around your kids or your elderly parents?
And what type of attitude will these workers bring to their new Government-guaranteed jobs? Most of us would still work hard even if we knew that we could not get fired. But when Uncle Sam is basically required to keep you in the job you have, you know some people will put in little to no effort–and be downright insolent to their superiors. Just look at tenured professors on college campuses across the country.
All of this assumes that the Sanders plan would actually pigeonhole people in specific jobs they may not want to do. What’s to keep this from morphing into a “taxpayers will fund whatever job you want” program? Sanders believes in Government-supported arts, will painters, poets and singer-songwriters basically become wards of the state? Will universities be required to hire philosophy, women’s studies, and social justice majors right after handing them their diplomas–since there is little for them to do in private sector?
As with all of his grandiose Socialist plans, Sanders is “still working on the costs” of his Government Jobs Program. Might I suggest all $15 an hour those folks make just go right back to Uncle Sam?
