"Percival P. Cassidy" wrote in message
...
On 11/18/11 04:11 am, Robert Green wrote:

snip

I don't suggest anyone get a government check for doing nothing. In
fact, I
am adamantly opposed to it for practical and moral reasons. Studies
clearly
show the longer someone is on unemployment, the less likely they are to
ever
return to the workforce. I'll agree there's great "moral hazard" in
doing
that at least as bad as bailing out "too big to fail" banks.

But if the jobless are paid for scraping rust off bridges, cleaning up
highways and streets or some other project that has an instrinsic social
value, they can very easily prevent the destruction of wealth.

snip

The country benefits as a whole if instead of just handing out
unemployment
checks we require people to attend retraining and skill building courses
or
engage in community or public service, even if it's cleaning trash from
highways.

But if scraping rust from bridges and cleaning up trash from highways is
necessary work, why not pay otherwise-unemployed people the proper wage
for doing the work, not making them work for peanuts?

Where did I say I'd make them work for peanuts? As any fan of "Everyone
Hates Chris" knows, I would pay them in popsicle sticks. (-: sarcasm
alert

--
Bobby G.