47% of all Americans support job guarantee
Nearly
half of all Americans support job guarantee
01/13/14 12:30 PM—UPDATED
Nearly
half of all Americans would be in favor of a universal government job creation
program, according to a poll commissioned by the Huffington Post. Out
of nearly 1,000 polled respondents, 47% would either somewhat support or
strongly support “a law guaranteeing a job to every American adult, with the
government providing jobs for people who can’t find employment in the private.”
The Huffington
Post commissioned the poll in response to a January 3 Rolling Stone piece
called “Five Economic Reforms Millennials Should Be Fighting For.”
The article, written by freelance journalist Jesse Myerson, suggested that
millennials should demand “guaranteed work for everybody,” funded by the
federal government.
“Unemployment
blows,” wrote Myerson. “The easiest and most direct solution is for the
government to guarantee that everyone who wants to contribute productively to
society is able to earn a decent living in the public sector.”
Although
conservative news outlets mocked the proposal, the Huffington Post
poll suggests a broad base of support for government-subsidized full
employment. Such a policy has never been attempted before, but advocates of the
job guarantee say that similar government job creation programs have reduced
poverty and led to economic growth in countries like Argentina and India. In
fact, extreme poverty fell by 25% when a
government job creation program was attempted in Argentina, according to Bard
College economist Pavlina Tcherneva.
Duke
University public policy professor William Darity Jr. has argued that a job
guarantee would reduce poverty in the United States while also ensuring that
essential public sector work got done.
“A
federal job guarantee at non-poverty wages … for all citizens would enable
the nation to meet both its physical and human infrastructure needs,” wrote
Darity in a July 2013 New York Times piece. ”Workers under the public
service employment system could repair roads and bridges, provide high quality
day care services, build and maintain the public schools and rehabilitate our
damaged postal system.”
At
least one sitting member of Congress is pushing for a similar proposal. Rep.
John Conyers, D-Mich., has proposed a so-called “Full Employment
and Training Act” which would create a government trust fund to
finance job creation.
Respondents
to the Huffington Post poll were less sympathetic towards Myerson’s
other proposals, which included a universal basic income and the creation of a
government-run bank in every single state. Only 35% of respondents favored
so-called “Social Security for all,” which would provide a guaranteed income to
every U.S. citizen with no strings attached.
“The
relative popularity of a job guarantee reflects what we already know: that
Americans at large are greatly more concerned about the unemployment crisis
than Congress is,” Myerson told msnbc. “The other four ideas are unorthodox and
unfamiliar to most people and will require considerable political organizing to
become popular demands.”
Five Economic reforms Millennials Should be fighting for :
1. Guaranteed Work for Everybody
2. Social Security for All
3. Take Back the Land
4. Make Everything Owned by Everybody
5. A Public Bank in Every State
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