General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: What If We Just Gave Poor People a Basic Income for Life? That’s What We’re About to Test. [View all]malthaussen
(17,217 posts)Yes, a good CCC program would be enormously helpful, but it only addresses one part of the problem. (Some people have toyed with the idea of a mandatory CCC-type program, a sort of compulsory VISTA, to promote young people of different social classes rubbing elbows together. That does, of course, smack a bit too much of the Organization Todt, but it is not wholly without merit) But the problem remains of employing the rising numbers of those who are not employable: senior citizens, for example, may not be physically able to do labor on infrastructure projects. The other point is that the CCC programs, and the post-war plenty, occurred at a time when there was actually a labor shortage, one moreover falsely enhanced by arbitrarily restricting access of certain groups (women and blacks, e.g.) to the labor pool. But that situation no longer obtains. Having said that, it would be a useful step in the right direction, if not a solution in itself. (IMO, of course)
-- Mal