Millions of people in the United States need jobs. Of those fortunate enough to be employed, how many people stay in jobs they hate, exploited by management or doing unconscionable work, because they feel they have no choice? How many are struggling to support themselves on unlivable wages or juggling multiple jobs just to get by? Meanwhile, crucial public services get cut, local infrastructure decays, and people's basic needs go unfilled. A federally-funded, locally-administered Job Guarantee could change all this almost immediately.
In this video, economist Pavlina Tcherneva of the Levy Institute explains what a Job Guarantee is, why it is a superior macroeconomics stabilizer, and and what we can learn from her research on the Jefes ("Heads of Households") Program in Argentina. The Jefes Program, in addition to driving an employment-led economic recovery, had radical social and political implications. Many of the jobs created were proposed and organized by the workers themselves, and women were particularly empowered by the program.
This video condenses a lecture Tcherneva presented at a seminar entitled "Guaranteed Income or Employment: Economic Rights for the 21st Century" hosted by the Modern Money Network. You can watch the full lecture here:
youtube.com/watch?v=-3uWDnLVPv8
For further reading, please see:
rollingstone.com/politics/news/five-economic-reforms-millennials-should-be-fighting-for-20140103
levyinstitute.org/pubs/pn_12_02.pdf
neweconomicperspectives.org/2014/01/social-enterprise-sector-model-job-guarantee-u-s.html
modernmoneynetwork.org/seminar-8-economic-rights.html
jacobinmag.com
