"Any government can achieve full employment by offering a public service job to anyone who wants one at a fixed market wage...by fixing the wage paid under this ELR program at a level that does not disrupt existing labor markets--that is, a wage level close to the existing minimum wage--substantive price stability can be expected.
"Adoption of an ELR program would permit the elimination of many existing government welfare payments for anyone not specifically targeted for exemption..."
2. From Paul Einzig, ~The Economic Foundations of Fascism~, London: Macmillan, 1933, pages 47-56:
"In previous chapters we have touched superficially on the intervention of the Italian Government in economic activity in the form of undertaking public works of an exceptional nature...To a great extent it takes the place of the dole...
"A large part of the works have been financed by the issue of Treasury bonds...
"The Italian nation trusts its Government implicitly. For this reason there is no danger either in unbalancing the budget for the sake of capital expenditure...It may be contrary to the principles of orthodox banking and finance, but the special position of the Fascist Government fully justifies its departure from textbook rules in this respect..."
----Original Message Follows---- Date: Sat, 27 Jun 1998 19:01:08 -0400 To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> Subject: RE: Resurrected Fascism Cc: ecwfm at cc.newcastle.edu.au Reply-To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
William B. Ryan wrote:
Bill Mitchell, an economics department chairman, wrote on Post Keynesian Thought http://csf.colorado.edu/mail/pkt/jun98/0477.html in response to my statement regarding his buffer stock proposal that "in other words, if you do not work, you do not eat":
"Bullshit. If you can work, you do not get welfare or a BSE wage. This doesn't mean you don't eat. It might, in which case you would start working. In a BSE, it means that everyone who can work can access the distributional system. Societies like the ones we live in have not yet agreed to have some working and paying for others who could work and choose not to. Maybe down the track but I personally find it repugnant to think that someone would want to sponge like that."
Adolph Hitler could not have said it better.
The Mosler-Mitchell buffer stock proposals differ only in detail from superficially progressive sounding proposals of the 1920's fascists. The Nazi labor camps were the logical extension of such proposals, advancing only as to administrative efficiency. These labor camps evolved into concentration camps, which evolved into death camps.
This is a load of crap. Bill Mitchell isn't a fascist. Warren Mosler, though his scheme strikes me as soft-money malarkey, isn't either. I don't see any reason why this was carried over from PKT to here, but it's not welcome, at least by me.
Doug
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