An admirable endeavor, in a life already overflowing with admirable endeavors, by Barry Crimmins is getting off to a slow start.

Crimmins photo project: Picture this

Garrison Keillor in his daily  Writer's Almanac gave us this today:

On this day in 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Works Progress Administration to provide jobs for unemployed Americans during the Great Depression. More than 8.5 million people were paid an average monthly salary of $41.57 to build roads, paint murals, and record American folklore. Republicans called the WPA "We Pick Apples" or "We Piddle Around." When people asked why the government would give jobs to artists, Harry Hopkins, the man in charge of the program, said, "Hell! They've got to eat just like other people." Citizens were grateful for the work. A poem sent to Roosevelt read, "I THINK THAT WE SHALL NEVER SEE / A PRESIDENT LIKE UNTO THEE ... POEMS ARE MADE BY FOOLS LIKE ME, / BUT GOD, I THINK, MADE FRANKLIN D."

 It is an interesting coincidence given some of the discussion after Carmin T's diary RAISING the gas tax would SAVE you money.     Let us look below to see how this program worked.

(cross-posted at The Dead Guy)

This is not a new concept. FDR and The New Deal. The late Senator Paul Simon's 1987 book by the same title as this post (Which I have a signed copy of - I had Senator Simon autograph it for me when he was in Iowa campaigning for the 1988 Democratic Presidential Nomination).

With a country that has resources and infrastructure in dire need of help, we need to put America back to work fixing these problems. Where could we start? Well, there are 10 pieces of U.S. infrastructure we must fix now!

From the Left Bank of the Potomac. They say hindsight is always 20-20, so let’s take a trip into the future and look in the rear view mirror at what’s happening right now in America.  It is 2083, and a writer named Nick Taylor is examining the causes of the Crash of 2008 and the decade-long economic depression that followed.  Observing that by the time Hillary Obama took office as President of the United States, a quarter of the nation’s workforce had "no jobs, and no hopes,"  Taylor writes in what will become an all-time bestseller in apocalyptic non-fiction:

Bush recently unveiled his economic stimulus plan, a plan that centers on tax rebates and tax breaks. It's 145 billion worth of short term gains. I'm one of those people who believes that tax rebates, no matter how good they feel at first, don't really do anything to actually stimulate the economy. It's like a feel good movie that will always end in an hour and half. Our economy needs a hell of a lot more than a temporary fix.

It's been a while since my last diary, which covered the relationship between Keynesian economic policy and public employment. Unfortunately, teaching got in the way of my next entry, which covers the relationship between public employment and the late, much-maligned left-liberal economic policy - economic planning.

In my previous entry I laid down a set of declarations for a new New Deal.  A set of admissions as to the intentions behind a "New2 Deal".  At the core of them was the simple admission that nothing buys you nothing, and that the basis of a new deal would be higher taxes.  No one likes higher taxes that I know of.  I certainly don’t.  That doesn’t mean they aren’t the right thing to do.  In discussions on taxes with Republicans, I know without a doubt it will only be a matter of time before they drop the F-Bomb: Fair

It’s time for a new New Deal.  I think Americans are ready for it, I think Republicans live in fear of it.  I won’t pretend to speak for the breadth and depth that is the Democratic Party.  We behave more like a drunken mob than an army on most issues, we lurch from point to point, sometimes diverging, sometimes fighting amongst ourselves, but going along together.  I sat and talked with a young woman, fresh from college, new to our state, and from a decidedly redder area of the country.  She considers herself a "swing voter", and so naturally I want her to swing our way.  I’ve had a field day with the office republican, beating him like a piñata over his administration’s excesses but every time the conversation turns to taxes, it’s like he has the upper hand.  "They want to raise your taxes," he says, like it’s a golden shield. I live in a democratic state, among solidly democratic voters, and yet we cringe at these points like they are some sort of lie.  Well, I’m done running from this.  We need a new new deal, and I’ll take the republican "talking points" head on if it gets us closer. below the flip.

In my last diary, I wrote about the differences between public employment and public works, and the implications for current and future policy. Today, I’m going to talk about the relationship between Keynesian economic policy and public employment, and what lessons we can draw from this.

You are a cleaner at Camden Yards, a publicly owned baseball stadium. You will work all night - but first you must arrive at least 2 hours before your scheduled time. You get in line and wait.  When a shift is assigned to you, a barcoded wristband is attached to you and you are loaded onto a van.  

The loaded van waits with you and the rest of the crew waiting.  Others are still waiting in the temp agency lobby, in limbo and hoping for a job tonight.  Nobody is on the clock yet, this all unpaid wait time.  Unpaid, but required to wait - if you leave you will be taken off the shift and most likely blacklisted. The unlucky will be sent home, but must wait and lose out on finding another job someplace else.  You are all required to wait, either with your barcoded wristband or with any word.  You wait in the van or in the lobby.  You unpaid for up to two hours for each game you work.

Previously, I talked about the different impacts public employment programs could have at different sizes. Today, I’ll be talking about the difference between public works and public employment, and how progressives ought to approach the two policies. Fair warning, as someone who studies the history of public policy, I’m going to wax historical for a while.

In my last diary/blog post, I talked about learning about Sen. Edwards' job plan and my own research into the historical roots of public employment.

Today, I thought I'd share a rough idea of what a modern public employment program would cost and what it would produce and what it would look like.

In my next diary, I'll talk about the potential released by a larger public employment program than the 1 million suggested by Sen. Edwards.

crossposted from unbossed

For years, judges have "interpreted" workplace laws in a way that destroys the rights in those laws.  Part I of this series examines some of those laws. Part II identifies three things that have caused us to lose these rights: (1) judges’ decisions; (2) employer antagonism to worker rights; and (3) our own failure to defend our rights. Part III talked about the need to replace the values of greed and selfishness with values of community.

Here I describe a strategy to put a stop to judge’s gutting worker rights.

crossposted from unbossed

For years, judges have "interpreted" workplace laws in a way that destroys the rights in those laws.  Part I of this series examines some of those laws. Part II identifies three things that have caused us to lose these rights: (1) judges’ decisions; (2) employer antagonism to worker rights; and (3) our own failure to defend our rights.

It will be no easy thing to take back these rights:

This has to be a group effort. That group effort is necessary in order to identify the incremental parts of the target, to identify the steps that need to be taken to lead to the ultimate goal. Indeed that goal needs to be identified. Is it just to peel off the judges' decisions that have undermined the law. Is it to transform our society into one that values work and workers? Or is it somewhere in between?