Of course there will always be jobs for some, but what happens when, say, the economy takes 50% less human capital to run? When are goods and food, etc., are being produced by machines, what will happen to the displaced workers?
We began disconnecting production and consumption when we allowed imports from nations with lower living standards without setting labor standards for producing countries or properly compensating domestic workers for the unfair advantage given to employers. Once workers could no longer threaten employers with production shutdown they lost all leverage in setting their own wages. This disadvantage has been maintained with the Fed’s monetary policy that is aimed at keeping a buffer stock of unemployed desperate to suppress wages as a means of inflation control.
The utility of that policy is only effective if one disregards the misery cost it produces and safety net benefits can be kept low so as to not add their own economic incentives beyond preserving critical supply chains. Making credit more expensive, thereby stifling economic activity, also offers greater bond yields to deep-pocket investors and increases the inequity that is already beyond any in the modern world here. We are only a “rich” country in terms of average income with the vast majority of Americans suffering and a full third living in conditions that would be considered approaching third-world standards,
The imbalance between high paying jobs and workers this created has generally degraded our economy over time and must be corrected. From a macroeconomic perspective, cheaper imported goods are a benefit to the importing nation, especially if it uses a sovereign fiat currency it can create on-demand without revenue restraints. The imported goods represent real resources and labor that we purchase with currency we mostly pull from our backsides, but the advantage that presents has been reserved almost entirely for the employer in the continuing war against labor that capitalism produces when not properly regulated by a true representative democracy.
Keeping our politicians dependent upon the ruling class for their funding has been a big part of this war and the reason voters are so often disappointed in the actions of their representatives after elections. Bernie’s rejection of big donors is probably the biggest threat he poses to the current system, especially if he can assure that the working class has sufficient resources to support politicians that will reverse economic trending and truly represent the majority. A job guarantee with a livable wage and benefits that allow dignity in work would, most importantly, peg the economy to the work hour instead of capital.
Even those working in the private sector would soon realize this and support such a program to preserve their own wages and benefits. The GOP would be forced to openly display their disdain for the working class to oppose the program, likely finding far less support among that class than it now gains by propagating economic myths about government finance that falsely posits the government as a competing “user” of the currency, reliant on taxes and borrowing to enable spending, and not its only net source as Treasury and Fed operations would show to be true.
This would be made even more evident by state and local administration of the program that would allow the term “job” to be defined by community needs, allowing the general population to realize real gains in quality of life from the work done in addition to the economic boost of the wages paid. It is difficult to walk far in any city or town in America and not see many opportunities for productive work now going undone because they don’t offer a path to profit or aren’t affordable to the local tax base.
The “payfor” rhetoric so common in economic discussions resonates with voters given that it plays into their experience as currency users where thrift and responsible spending are necessary to success. However, the federal budget process cannot be limited to what can be “found” via taxation and borrowing and serve the people as the founders intended. The primary function of taxation is not “funding” for spending, but to drive our need for the currency the government can create at will. The government never needs its currency back to enable it to spend. It only needs us to need its currency.
An economy properly organized around such a currency is only limited by the available resources and labor that are priced in that currency, not the currency itself. Forcing the economy to serve mostly meaningless numbers purposed to track the currency created by Congress is an extreme perversion of that intent and is responsible for political decisions that have resulted in needless misery and death. My support for Bernie comes primarily from his understanding of the role of government in the economy as he made evident by choosing a friend, Dr. Stephanie Kelton, as his chief econ advisor.
She is highly sought after as a lecturer and advisor worldwide and has produced many videos that explain the basics of Modern Monetary Theory. Anyone seriously interested in economics and politics should search for those videos on YouTube and be ready to clear their mind of what they “think” they know about money and funding the government. As Dr. Stephanie often states in quoting Twain, “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you in trouble. It’s what you know for certain that just ain’t so”.
