Whoa Nelly!

Reader comment on: 27 Ideas For Jobs and Growth

Submitted by Adam Wildavsky (United States), Aug 5, 2011 18:53

Most of these sound like fine ideas to me, but #4 would likely cause more problems than it solves. I can see how the idea seems attractive. My grandfather received a lump-sum workers' compensation settlement in 1930 and used the proceeds for a downpayment on a run-down apartment building, which he fixed up and rented out.

One problem is that allowing those who lose their jobs to receive two years' worth of benefits up-front would create an incentive to become unemployed in the first place. Another is that some recipients would go through their funds quickly, either though an unsuccessful business venture or otherwise, and the same logic that suggests unemployment benefits in the first place would apply to paying them a weekly benefit again. Our society is not culturally prepared to require that able bodied individuals be self-reliant.

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