Dr. Martin Hash Podcast

It seems obvious that a nation must produce more than it consumes, so it's in a nation's self-interest to encourage work ethic, or at the very least, not discourage it. Workless Welfare is dangerous because it sets people's expectations to be only consumers. Unfortunately, work ethic is at the mercy of both the liberty vs. socialism ideological conflict & the fact that lots of people simply would not work if not forced to. The very essence of civilization hinges on whether a society thinks that work ethic is one its most important ingredients.

There are many reasons for lack of jobs but the one consistent fact is that people need income to live. We could either give them free money with no obligations attached or require some kind of Make-Work to remind them that they are impinging upon the courtesy, good will & charity of others, as well as to maintain their work ethic. It would be nice if the Make-Work were more than simply digging-holes-n-filling-them but from a purely practical view, for many chronically unemployed people, the "jobs" provided must be much more like the military, because these people need discipline & structure. In fact, most of this Make-Work will take more management than they will produce but at least people will be working, and some will be able to move on into regular employment. And like any job, there will be lots of difficulty, nastiness, dishonesty, lying, cheating, stealing, etc., so the public's expectations must be kept to ethic first & job training second.

Also, to create Make-Work jobs, the public employee unions will have to be confronted. Public Employee unions have provisions in their contracts preventing Government from creating any "Community Service" jobs. Public Employee unions want any jobs to be under their union, paying into their retirement scams, but Make-Work must be subsistence only to discourage long-term reliance on it, certainly no cushy union rules, collective bargaining, or career rah-rah, otherwise people with real jobs would want those plum public employee jobs. The fact is, with the Public Employee unions on one side, and the "I deserve free money" folks on the other, it seems unlikely any Community Service Make-Work job program is possible, but as a nation we have to recognize what we're giving up by not instilling work ethic in our citizens.