A JG creates a right to work that is not discretionary
Sturgess 16, Hugh Sturgess, 2016, Would a Job Guarantee Guarantee Jobs? An Analysis of the Employer of Last Resort Proposal Hugh Sturgess University of Sydney President & CEO Arch Insurance International , Honours Thesis BCOMM McGill, https://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/bitstream/handle/2123/16650/Hugh%20Sturgess%20Honours%20Thesis.pdf?sequence=2, HK
The development of the JG can be dated to the late 1990s with the publication of Gordon (1997), Mitchell (1998), Mosler (1997-1998), Forstater (1998) and Wray (1998), regarded by JG advocates as seminal contributions (Juniper, Sharpe and Watts, 2014-2015: 298). All envisaged a state-guaranteed “employer of last resort” as the only effective solution to unemployment, and describe it in similar ways. The government should “offer[…] a public-service job to anyone who wants one” (Mosler, 1997-1998: 167), to “continuously absorb[…] workers displaced from the private sector” (Mitchell, 1998: 549). Such a program would not be discretionary, but would be “bound to hire the […] workers that no other employer is willing to hire” (Gordon, 1997: 828). As with Pierson (1979) and Minsky (1986), these authors see the JG as a force for both full employment and price stability. Mitchell (1998: 548) calls it “the only rational strategy for a government that [issues] a fiat currency and wishes to maximise macroeconomic benefits and price stability”