Government Solutions to Our Employment Crisis
We have many unskilled workers who can't find jobs. Yet we have parallel crises where the costs are far too high. Supply and demand use to solve these problems. Liberals refuse to let supply and demand solve these problems. They seek to use government intervention instead to exacerbate both problems. Here are government mandated solutions that could solve many of the liberal made crises.
Crisis 1. Child care is too expensive for the poor. The welfare mothers and unemployed single mothers can't afford childcare. Solution 1: Any woman receiving welfare or is otherwise complaining she can't get a job because she has to take care of the children shall be offered a choice: get a job in the real world on your own or work in a Head Start daycare. If they have no skills but parenting skills, they can work as child care providers. Result 1: With an increased supply of child care providers, the cost for everyone - especially the poor - will decrease. The unemployed mothers will be employed and ease the burden on their fellows who can work in other areas. Tax revenue will also go up as hundreds of thousands join the work force.
Crisis 2: We have too many homeless people. Solution 2: The homeless fall into several categories: mentally ill (crazy), mentally challenged (retarded), emotionally disturbed and antisocial (sociopath/criminal), victim of society (drug addict/alcoholic) and unemployable (lazy).
Part A: Part of the money we advocate for the homeless will go to reopening many of our now shuttered mental hospitals. Staffs can all come from the ranks of the normal unemployed or underemployed.
Part B: Turn a number of homeless shelters into half-way homes specifically for the mentally ill. The mentally challenged can be placed in supervised half-way houses as is done with only the most severe cases today. To get into a Texas State Schools today requires three of five serious physical defects, including paralysis, blindness, deafness, IQ under 60, and need for a breathing machine or feeding tube. Providing those mentally challenged and physically disabled who cannot live on their own would be a greater kindness than giving them a bowl of soup at night and turning them loose on the streets at 5 AM.
Part C: The criminals who wander the streets should be in our jails.
Part D and E: These two groups are easily interchangeable. Those who do not wish to work and don't use drugs regularly are a short slide form those who can't work because they do use drugs. Light security prisons with rehab facilities and workshops to keep them useful to society would be the best option for these individuals. If they sleep in the streets, they risk everyone's health and safety. If they are supervised and gainfully employed in a supervised manner, they cannot do drugs and they can't commit the crimes necessary to abuse drugs and alcohol. Results 2: No homeless drug addict, crazies, alcoholics, or other "slow" individuals on the street. Problem 3: Illegitimacy and high school dropout rates. Solution 3: Train or produce. If you act up to often or just can't stand the academic environment, we'll do what the Europeans do - apprentice you. You must get an education until age 18, no matter what that education is. Results 3: In a stricter, supervised environment that doesn't give kids a chance to sneak out or have sex in the stairwell, there will be fewer teenage pregnancies. Hence, there will also be fewer teenage mothers.
Moving to a more hands on environment will likely keep more boys in school who don't do well in regular classrooms. The opening of "apprentice" type schools separate from the purely academic schools will help other groups of unemployed and underemployed. For those who own a home, plumbers, electricians, roofers and other building repair work is inordinately expensive; have you ever paid $40 an hour for a plumber? Have you ever paid $100 for someone to spend ten minutes spraying your roaches? Teaching young men and women these skills lowers the cost of these critical services for everyone, as well as provides them with future employment options. Unemployed crafters who have trouble working in the union system can become the teachers. Administrators who clog up the academic system can be moved to one on one work with the more needful students. Everyone benefits. There are jobs today that are open to the unskilled and unemployed. Child care and elder care are in demand today and can be done by almost anyone. Anyone who has paid a plumber $40 to spend five minutes looking at a toilet or an electrician $400 to look at their wiring knows that the supply of those skilled workers can afford to increase. None of the building trades or care-taking jobs can move overseas; the people and properties are here and will stay here. And these jobs will always exist. It is a matter of encouraging the available human resources to fill the existing gaps in our society. There is no excuse to be unemployed. Taking care of those we have mistakenly mainstreamed will generate employment for caregivers. Moving people out of welfare and into work will create more work in return. Teaching real world skills to students will give them jobs that cannot be outsourced (someone in India cannot fix your toilet) and help the economy as a whole. Getting criminals and addicts off the streets will generate jobs for their supervision as it makes the streets safer for the rest of us. Thus, we must ask, what employment crisis? We have a solution within our midst, if government gets out of the way and we join together to resolve our community's problems.
