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Highlands Today

Employer Of Last Resort

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John B. Huber

Published: February 24, 2009

There are several inescapable realities of our ever-worsening economy that all point to the conclusion that the federal government must take on the role of an employer of last resort.
1. In addition to the already unemployed, the rest of us are also basing our purchasing and investing decisions on a real possibility of losing our own sole source of income. Jobs are the missing ingredient that the private sector can no longer reliably provide if left to its own resources.
2. The nation can also ill afford the luxury of increasing millions of laid-off workers collecting unemployment compensation, while sitting idle and contributing nothing to the economy.
3. The prospect of deficit spending without foreseeable end carries with it far too much negative baggage to ever provide the sorely needed catalyst for a renewal positive mindset.
4. The capacity of the federal government is not boundless and it will lose the ability to change the course of events if it waits until unemployment levels reach an unmanageable level.
Conclusion: Able-bodied workers who find themselves unable to keep or find employment in the private sector should no longer receive unemployment checks or welfare payments.
They instead should be provided a meaningful job with a living wage paycheck, thereby restoring a workable level of full employment.
From that point the private sector will regain its lost self-confidence and maintain that positive mindset so long as the government continues to fill the unemployment gap as the economy goes up and down.
A civilian workforce, advancing education, environment and public-service needs will not be a waste of money, but instead an appropriate investment in the future of following generations who will likely have to pay for the deficits created by this generation.
John B. Huber
Sebring

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