Mandel and Keyens

[Mathew Forstater]

I recommend PUT TO WORK by Nancy Rose (Monthly Review Press) on the strengths
and weaknesses of different WPA style/era programs and proposals.  If the State
GUARANTEES a job to anyone ready, willing, and able to work this makes a big
difference from if it simply is working around the edges to try to lessen
unemployment a bit.  Also, there may be other reasons why people would choose a
lower wage in the private sector over a higher wage in the public sector (work
preference, specific opportunities for advancement, etc.). Also, the State could
use guaranteed jobs to affect wages, benefits, etc. in the private sector.
Proposals along these lines have been put forward in Nell's PROSPERITY AND
PUBLIC SPENDING, and also by Bill Mitchell (still on lbo?), though I'm not
absolutely sure whether this is in Bill's published stuff yet.  I have
definitely heard him make the argument in presentations and also on this or
other lists.  There was a famous article (that did not reference Marx) by
Stiglitz and Shapiro (I think) called something like "Unemployment as a
Labor-discipline Device."  The idea here is more like "High wages/benefits and
job security and workplace and environmental regulation as a Capital-discipline
device."  Of course, you can argue that government would never do it. But that
is another issue.

Max Sawicky wrote:


> > Doug,
> >
> > 6. Since the govt is only to trying to supplement, not supplant, private
> > intiative, it can't offer wages which would motivate workers to leave the
> > private sector, bid wages up, compound profitability difficulties there,
> > and thus reduce private initiative. In order not to set this chain off,
> > mustn't the govt thus offer low to slave wages in its  employment
> > generating programs? If we look closely at FDR's progams, isn't that what
> > we find? . . .
>
> On average public sector jobs pay more than private
> sector, though this premium reduces drastically if
> one compares similar jobs, rather than glossing over
> the difference between police officers and retail
> clerks.  In general, government pay is competitive
> without being destabilizing.  An exception is welfare
> related programs, where the pay is below standard
> for either public or private jobs.  Another is prison
> based work.  These jobs are very much the exception
> as far as the public sector goes.
>
> MBS