Had America adopted the policy of protecting its “people” and simply paid them for retraining or a dignified retirement instead of shoveling more wealth at those who exported the jobs in some vain hope of protecting “jobs” there would be no problem. The government makes people unemployed with its fiscal policy, not with its trade policy.

When our trade partners do business in America there is always a “fair value trade” made for the goods they send us in exchange for our dollars. How or where the goods are made is of little economic consequence as long as workers who are displaced are given the opportunity to participate in the economy and purchase the goods just as if they made them themselves.

The dollars are a no-cost commodity that Congress is mandated to create for “the common welfare”. As the monopoly issuer of the currency, it has no restrictions on that from revenue and can always afford anything that is for sale and denominated in dollars, including the excess labor the private sector doesn’t use. As long as there are goods and services to purchase there is no requirement that Congress get currency to “pay for” the dollars deployed in the economy. Inflation is the limiting factor and that only occurs when all potential labor and resources are committed, which we are far from.

We need a federally funded (to utilize the power of the sovereign fiat currency) and locally administered (to make the best use of available labor) job guarantee. One only has to take a walk around any city or small town to see that there is no shortage of jobs to be done that simply offer no path to profit or are too expensive for the shrinking tax base of the municipalities. The federal government needs to get over its obsession with the (not real) debt and begin to comply with its mandate (Article 1: Section 8).