Under-employment is a major problem of the human species. In much of the world, people are idle who need meaningful work.
Under-employment has three components: • Not employed - desires employment • Employed part time - desires full time employment • Employment in non-essential efforts
Q. What is the cause of this problem?
A. Under-employment is caused by technology. People are no longer able to provide for themselves due to increased population, scarcity of natural resources and social organization enforced by the rule of law.
To address the problem of unemployment, we need to make the following changes: • Eliminate all welfare payments over a brief time interval; say five years. The welfare experiment was a total failure. • Establish a minimum wage and let the labor market establish the value of work based upon a person's abilities and skill set. • Make the state an employer of last resort to ensure that anyone who wants a job receives one. These jobs will serve community needs and be paid from a national, progressive income tax. The wage rate will be one half of the established poverty level. Jobs of last resort will require a minimum of forty hours per week of attendance on the job. • Adjust the number of hours in a work week inversely to the number of jobs of last resort provided by the state
There will always be the poor, by definition the bottom ten per cent of income earners; but, poverty can be eliminated by forcing the economic system to provide full employment.
This does not advocate forcing everyone to work. It recommends against paying people to not work.
Full employment means that anyone who wants work will find it in a short time frame - say one week.
We have the Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) here. Their job is to help people find work. If anyone not able to find a job on their own goes to the VEC they should get a job quickly. If none are available, then the person would be given a