Debate Resolution: "The United States ought to institute a federal jobs guarantee"

Debate Resolution: "The United States ought to institute a federal jobs guarantee"

PRO:

Speaking from a purely economic perspective (culturally we conflate money with morality), homeless people and prisoners cost the state roughly $20,000.00 per person per year.  School children in the USA receive a subsidy of roughly $15,000.00 per child per year.  Homeless people & prisoners & school children are unproductive members of society (jobless).  It would be a great boost to the economy (culturally we conflate money with morality) if we found some jobs for these individuals (since we also tend to conflate laziness with immorality).

Of course a "jobs guarantee" probably doesn't mean "mandatory labor camps".

CON:

Speaking from a purely economic perspective (culturally we conflate money with morality), a deep, primal fear of becoming homeless and a deep, primal fear of being sent to prison contributes immensely to economic productivity.  This fundamental and essential primal fear is what keeps the working class (80% of the country) going to jobs they hate, overlooking safety violations, taking verbal abuse from customers and managers, and accepting extremely low wages (keeping consumer prices competitive).

If these workers were "guaranteed a job", then they would walk away from these wretched, dead-end, often physically dangerous jobs (with no retirement or health guarantees) and the nation's entrepreneurs would go out of business.  These businesses would probably be replaced by government-run replacements because the government would have a huge surplus of employees due to their "jobs guarantee".  This would lead to a totalitarian state, and everybody knows that totalitarian state = teh evil.

Therefore, "The United States ought to institute a federal jobs guarantee" = "totalitarian state" = evil.

That is, give everyone who has applied for unemployment insurance, or anyone who wishes to work, a job providing public services. There is an inexhaustible list of services that we could use, such as maintenance and clean-up of roads and bridges, public buildings and public spaces, child and elder care so no one would be prohibited from getting a job because they have to care for their children or parents, transportation services so everyone could get to their job.  The list is truly endless.

At $15 per hour, these jobs would not be cushy. They would require 40 hours of hard, regular work per week. They would be true jobs and, at the same time, the government employees would be free, and encouraged, to take jobs in the private workforce. Private employers looking for workers would have to compete for them, offering better wages, working conditions or benefits.

If a worker does not live up to the requirements for the job, is prone to come to work late or call in sick too often, they would be fired just like any other employer would do. A private company could hire these malcontents at whatever wage they wish (there would be no minimum wage) but they would have to put up with the shoddy work ethics that were the cause of the termination.

For this, we would eliminate all unemployment insurance, welfare, housing subsidies and food stamps.  Everyone who wants to work would be able to work as there would be a variety of transportation options as well as plenty of child- and elder-care available.  All could be subsidized or free.

We could have a beautiful, well-maintained America with everyone who wants a job, working and earning a livable wage.