Obama’s jobs plan: Go work for free!

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/09/02-8

On Wednesday, I posted an item titled “How Not to Solve the Jobs Problem.” The case in point is President Barack Obama’s embrace of a state program called Georgia Works, which tries to turn unemployment insurance into a kind of sing-for-your-supper “workfare” program.

Jobless workers in Georgia drawing unemployment compensation are encouraged to go work for private employers—for free—in exchange for some kind of training. They get a small onetime stipend of $240 as an inducement. The premise is that working for free will help them get a foot in the door and maybe get hired (if the employer hires). According to Georgia’s own statistics, however, only about 15 percent do.

This pitifully inadequate program is very likely to be part of Obama’s forthcoming jobs speech.

But let’s drill deeper. Why is the administration embracing such a right-wing and futile program? Obviously, the problem in Georgia is the unemployment rate, of 10.1 percent, not the fact that unemployed workers lack a few weeks’ training for low-wage jobs.

More at the link --

[jefferson_dem]

1. Yes, we know. There's a hearty discussion of this editorial

here - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1863174

[Riley18]

2. Georgia really never did want to give up slavery.

What will happen to their paid employees? Best case scenario will be that their hours will be cut. Worst case is they will be let go.

[jefferson_dem]

18. And now Obama wants to be a slave master! Spread the word!1!

[MH1]

3. One of my top charities is an organization that helps troubled women be prepared to work

in a regular workplace. Because they really do lack basic job skills. The program is a huge success and has helped many women. I have a relative who is a social services worker and has an up-close view of the benefit such organizations provide.

Do you really think that there is no one in this country who is unprepared to walk into a regular job and conform to required standards of dress, behavior, and interactions with others? Really? If so, please step away from the keyboard, and get out in the real world for awhile ... without any recreational drugs that might be clouding your observational skills.

Also, as others posted on a previous thread about this topic, they have personal experience that says any kind of work environment is beneficial to the long-term unemployed. It may suck paywise but it's better than a hole in the resume.

I think you are beating up on the wrong thing here. This would be an option, and it's an option that would be helpful to some people.

There's lots more worthy to beat up on Obama about than this. But I guess if you're time is essentially unlimited ...

[izquierdista]

33. Amazing how these people became "unprepared" all at once.

Did everyone start taking recreational drugs all at once in 2007? Is that why unemployment spiked?

Just because you know a few people that would have difficulty getting hired in good times and bad, it doesn't generalize to the large numbers of people who suddenly found themselves unemployed. For a lot of people, myself included, the jobs went away and aren't coming back. Fortunately, I made enough money in the good times so that I don't have to participate in these charades, I can just sit back and watch.

[mother earth]

4. While some may feel this is a great option, it won't take the

corporate overlords long to figure out that more and more people should be laid off to get in on this deal to the max. WTF? Talk about aiding TPTB in yet another swindle with a new twist...I long for an "in party" challenger. When there's no accountability for the bankers that pulled off the biggest heist ever, welcome to the next round.

[MH1]

5. your point only applies to unskilled or low-skilled jobs.

But you are correct that there would need to be controls to prevent that kind of abuse.

[Harmony Blue]

7. The vast majority of new jobs being added in this economy

are "unskilled" or low-skilled jobs. Furthermore, low-skilled jobs tend to require more exertion of physical labor, with little chance of full time too.

[MH1]

10. I still see plenty of demand for IT workers

unfortunately, 'strong communication skills' is often not in the requirements, and H1Bs keep giving foreign workers with a little (often faked) work experience an advantage over any newly-minted US IT college graduate.

Truly sux to sit where I do and keep being told "these are the only qualified resumes we received" with not an American in the stack. Do I completely believe that? I have no way to prove otherwise. But what would it benefit a company to have a Tower of Babel IT department if it could hire qualified native english speakiers instead? Where's the incentive for the corporate masters to do that?

[Inuca]

8. It's also where the highest unemployment is

have a look here http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t04.htm Employment status of the civilian population 25 years and over by educational attainment it's quite stunning. August 2011 data - 14.3% for less than a high school degree, bachelor degree and higher 4.3%. Education still makes a difference, and it's one reason why programs that encourage training and retraining are very worthwhile.

[txlibdem]

6. Giving workers to a company for free is SOCIALISM.

Georgia is a Socialist State??? I guess it is.

[Inuca]

9. Knee jerk reaction

if implemented the right way, such a program can be useful. It is also similar to getting an internship while you are in college. Smart students are very eager to work for free as interns, and this gain experience and be able to add to their resume.

[Demit]

11. And a lot of interns end up doing just crapola unskilled work at the company.

So, not really useful experience.

Sure, if things were implemented the right way, everything would be hunky-dory. But the temptation for companies to exploit workers is just too strong. And can you seriously see this administration implementing—oh wait, I have to stop laughing so hard so I can type this—any kind of regulation on business behavior?

[Inuca]

15. A lot do, it's true

and quite a few others also learn a lot. It's not perfect by any means, but it is reasonable good.

[Demit]

24. It is not even close to reasonably good for the interns who learn nothing.

You know who unpaid internships are "perfect" for? Employers who get free labor.

And that's who these programs under discussion are designed for. The government would be paying workers that ridiculous one-time pittance—out of public taxpayer money, mind you—to help companies get labor they don't have to pay for.

You can put the carrot on the stick and dangle it in front of the unemployed just the way it's dangled in front of interns: Oh, you'll be getting valuable experience! Oh, you'll be learning the business! Oh, give us your labor now and it will surely pay off for you someday in the future! The carrot is always just out of reach, but meanwhile, the one dangling it is getting exactly what they want.

[Inuca]

39. The interns were just an analogu, but still

I spent most of my professional life, 20+ years, in higher education, I dealt with students, I know forst hand, not only statistics, about the pluses and minuses of internships. I also know that the good students, the ones that actually want to learn, not only to pad their resume, usually either manage to push their employers so they are given tasks that actually fit their education, or if they see that all they are asked is to make coffee, they just leave and try to find something better. I suppose it also depends on the field, I delat with information systems and computer science students, most of them found their internships highjkly valuable, it may not be the same for all fields, I do not know.

[TBF]

12. Idiocy. You can market it however you want, it is still slavery. nt

[Inuca]

16. I gave you an argument

withe which you are of course free to diasgree. You responded with an insult. End of story.

[TBF]

28. You started your post with the insult of "knee jerk reaction"

so don't give me that crap.

[jefferson_dem]

21. How, exactly, is it "slavery" when unemployed workers *voluntarily* participate...

in this job training program and maintain the same benefits their would have accrued had they not volunteered to participate?

[TBF]

27. How do they have a choice when unemployment is so high?

This is only a "choice" in that you agree or starve. Freedom to be oppressed. Lovely.

[Demit]

31. I guess you never worked in a situation where your boss *asked* you to *volunteer* for something.

I guess you were *free* to say *no*.

Not slavery, perhaps, but you knew if you wanted to keep the benefit of having the job, you knew you had better *volunteer*.

[stuckinarut]

36. There is a word for that...

Coercion.

[TBF]

13. When I heard Obama would talk about new jobs - I assumed it had to do with the pipeline -

while not great for the environment, I do know that energy jobs have kept Houston going and realize that those pipeline jobs will help folks (hopefully for the short term as we turn to renewables - I know, one can dream).

But trust Mr. Obama to instead decide folks have to work for free. In Lincoln's time we used to call this SLAVERY. Now we call it "hope and change".

[jefferson_dem]

20. So these workers, who receive job training, will be required to work for free...

like slaves?

[TBF]

22. Why don't you tell us Mr. Supporter? People pay thousands of dollars for education -

and then work for a very paltry sum (which will NOT be paid by the company - it will be paid by the government) while being "trained". How is that going to help them pay off their loans? Explain, too, if you will, how folks will be chosen for these wondrous opportunities. Will unemployed folks over 50 be selected for "training"?

[SidDithers]

14. Good citizens check for duplicates...nt

Sid

[Starry Messenger]

17. People are practically working for free *now* and this "theory" isn't working.

If employers can get away with paying as little as .80 cents an hour for the labor of a skilled but a little rusty worker, they will. No amount of "control" will make this turd shine. Such employers will just look for ways to bring that .80 down even lower.

[Honeycombe8]

30. That sounds like they will be receiving free training...not exactly just working for free.

Employers, in a recession, aren't likely to hire workers who aren't already skilled. But this program sounds okay for a small segment of the unemployed...those who know how to do only one thing and can't get a new job doing that, they are young enough to be hired, and they can't afford to pay for trade school or more education. I'm too old for this program to work for me, but this would've been helpful for me a couple of decades ago.

[Starry Messenger]

34. The low pay is bullshit.

Free internships are quite mainstream now and those jobs rarely lead to hiring of the interns. They are shucked off after their indenture of free labor. If employers are now offered tax money to take on practically free laborers, this program is going to be abused. The "trainee" will be ejected back into the flaccid job market with a few more skills and $240 dollars, while bringing far more labor power profit to the company that employs them. This will drastically submerge already drowning wage levels.

[treestar]

19. There is no way Obama's jobs plan is going to please you

You are determined not to see any good in it.

[TBF]

23. And there is no way you will ever post substance - it is all personal attacks. nt

[treestar]

25. When someone makes several threads all decrying a plan not set out yet

They deserve to have that called out.

[TBF]

29. Complete bullshit - when this stuff is floated we have a choice -

we can respond or be silent. If we are silent then you apologists scream "but noone said anything. you voted so you should have understood what you were getting."

No more. I won't vote for complicity. I will not be quiet. I will die resisting if necessary.

[treestar]

32. OMG the drama!

No one is asking you to die here. This is an electoral process. And Obama hasn't made the speech yet but you too have already determined that it won't be good enough. And it won't be, no matter what is said.

In fact if he were to say all the right things, it would just be "hot air, we want action Mr. President."

Action is taken place only under the constitutional system, however.

[TBF]

37. Electoral process is only part of it - and we are going to see how that works next year.

Mr. Obama's choices now are going to have a big impact on how that turns out. We are NOT protesting for the sake of protesting - we are resisting actual policies of Mr. Obama's that are all reactionary by design. You can try to pretty up that pig all you want, and we are going to expose it for what it is. As I said, if we didn't then we are met with cries of "but no one said anything".

We do want action - we want jobs NOW. But you will see soon enough what happens when people don't have jobs. Which is exactly what Mr. Obama knows - when you have so many in the streets they will organize. He doesn't want that so he has come up with his "work for your unemployment" project. It doesn't matter that they will earn but a pittance, it is his way of keeping them occupied so they don't protest.

I cannot wait until this man's term is over. My biggest wish is that he is primaried in 2012.

[Honeycombe8]

26. That sounds okay to me. As a PART of a jobs program. You say only 15%

might end up getting jobs. Well, 15% is better than 0%. And if I were one of those 15%, I'd be pretty happy about that.

This sounds good for people who are trained or have skills in only one thing, which means they are not situated very well to become re-employed. Because they're unemployed, they can't afford to go back to school/trade school. So this sounds good to me, for those people who would benefit from learning a new trade or occupation.

[Ineeda]

38. That's how I see it, too.

Of course there could be abuse of the system, but what else is new?
Clearly the slant some are taking on this is that it's "slave labor." Because it's evidently voluntary, I see it differently. Among other things, the unemployed person benefits from the vital aspect of actually doing something, feeling hopeful, feeling employable. (IMO, this is a big one.) And even it's remote, the unemployed person has a chance of getting an actual job. As stated, better a 15% chance compared to zero.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

35. Will the grateful new employees have overseers and drivers "training" them?

[unionworks]

40. arbeiten macht frei

Glad I'm single. I'll take my chances being homeless before I'll work for free for any of the bastrds.