Putting everyone to work would reduce our social problems

We should stop budget cutting and increase government spending on infrastructure repair, education, health care and other programs

Imagine if everyone in America able to work had a job; what a difference it would make!

Alcoholism and drug abuse would decrease. So would suicide and crime. Our neighborhoods would be safer.

Kids would do better in school, because their families would be more secure. People’s health would improve. Income inequality would decline.

All these social problems have been shown to dramatically improve when people have jobs.

Probably the most important thing we could do to turn this country around would be to guarantee everyone a job. This is completely do-able. First, the federal government should be running bigger budget deficits — deficits big enough to stimulate the creation of many more jobs in the private economy but not enough to cause inflation beyond the 2 percent target of the Federal Reserve.

We should stop budget cutting and increase government spending on infrastructure repair, education, health care and other important programs where many of the goods and services are provided by the private sector. This will put more money into the economy than is drawn out in taxes, and will create several million new jobs. (The 2009 stimulus is now estimated to have created about 3 million jobs.)

Second, to the extent there are still people who are able to work but unable to find jobs, many of them young adults, the federal government should have a standing offer to employ them for minimum wage or a little more — that is, to be the employer of last resort. To the extent these individuals need health care, including behavioral health care, or training in life skills and job skills to hold down a job, the government should work with state and local governments and nonprofits to provide it.

Once people are fully able to work, they would be expected to do so, but would be guaranteed a job, in the public or private sector.

The list of worthwhile, entry-level jobs that need to be done but don’t require a lot of education or experience are endless. Working in nursing homes, as educational or child care assistants, park maintenance, entry-level jobs in home and building maintenance, helping to fix up run-down neighborhoods and retrofit houses and buildings for clean energy, entry-level jobs as community safety workers, in after-school programs, in our national parks and forests.

As our young people work in these entry-level jobs, they will learn the skills and gain the experience to qualify them for more advanced and better-paying jobs in the private sector.

Where would we get the money for this? The price tag would be several hundred billion dollars per year, at least until the economy is back at full-employment.

The answer is that the government would borrow from the trillions of dollars of excess funds sitting in banks around the country that are not being put to any useful purpose.

Businesses are still not sure enough about the recovery to borrow and invest all these funds in new plants and equipment. When they begin to borrow and invest, the jobs program can be cut back because the economy will be producing more jobs on its own.

At present the government can borrow at very low rates. Interest payments on the national debt are currently much lower as a percent of GDP than they were under Reagan. This is an ideal time for the government to borrow the funds to invest in our people.

We will produce returns far higher than the modest interest rates we would have to pay. For example, the return on early child care is estimated at 10 percent, where the current government cost to borrow is 2-3 percent.

We still have over 8 million people unemployed or working part-time involuntarily. Let’s put everyone to work and reduce our social problems at the same time.

If you want to see conflict between poor citizens and the police decline, bring hope back to poor neighborhoods by guaranteeing everyone a job. And then make it happen.