reading-notes/2021/the-case-for-a-job-guarantee-tcherneva-2020.md at master · iechevarria/reading-notes

the following are my notes on the case for a job guarantee. this is not a summary. instead, these are the ideas that caught my eye.

2: a steep price for a broken status quo

23 - unemployment is unique bc there's this idea that there's a non-zero optimal level of unemployment: NAIRU; would be nuts to think this way about homelessness or illiteracy
26 - "It is hard not to conclude that the NAIRU has provided cover for the profound policy failure of tackling unemployment head on."
29 - people who need work most, long term unemployed, have most barriers to employment
36 - joblessness can lead to personal + health problems that prevent person from getting a job again
37 - most costs of unemployment are non-monetary: suggests that just providing income to unemployed would be inadequate

48 - precedent for job guarantee: buffer stock program where govt buys commodity, preventing it from going below price floor, then sells it back -> maintains price floor + employs the commodity
48 - minimum wage is a weak floor bc it doesn't extend to unemployed
50 - "It is indefensible on both economic and moral grounds to have run full employment and price support programs for agricultural commodities or gold, without doing the same for jobseekers."
52 - no limit to budget that would be necessary to coax firms to full employment
55 - families on short unemployment benefits cut spending much more than those who have guaranteed job option
57 - job guarantee job creation wouldn't rely on interstate competition for firm subsidies

80 - we currently use public purse to fund unemployment regime when instead we should fund an employment regime -> seems like covid throws a wrench in this, seems like we need both in pandemic conditions

90 - in 1949, minimum wage doubled without accelerating inflation in a time when economy was near full employment
91 - infrastructure is permanent responsibility of govt, shouldn't only work on it during slumps; this isn't what job guarantee is for
104 - "The program is productive because it eliminates the negative return from joblessness, and because it stabilizes the economy better than unemployment."
105 - "When the emphasis is on the project, rather than on the person, it invariably becomes difficult to advocate for jobs for all. That becomes possible when the emphasis is on the scourge of unemployment and the need to guarantee the basic economic right to a job." <- initially didn't find this satisfying, but it's very honest. figuring out how I feel about it. it's an admission that some of this will be make-work
105 - critique that employers would have to meet / exceed job guarantee standards: "This critique is a thinly veiled argument in support of firms' privilege to pay poverty wages."
106 - euthanizing poverty jobs is feature, not bug - protest will come from firms, not workers