The plan would be irresistible, sucking employment from private businesses---turns automation.

Universal employment is a worthy goal. Chronic joblessness depresses lifetime earnings substantially (even after the joblessness ends), damages relationships, and leads to serious health problems. But the new proposal is unworkable and implausible. Advocates estimate that 10.7 million currently unemployed and under-employed Americans would sign up. Yet the guaranteed wage of $15 per hour, plus benefits—which exceeds the current compensation levels for 40 percent of all workers—would induce millions of working Americans to quit their jobs and join the new program. Millions of others not currently looking for work, including retirees, would find the benefit package irresistible. Advocates estimate that the cost of salary, health care, child care, transportation, supplies, and capital goods would total $56,000 per employee. If participation rises to 20 to 35 million—which seems likely—the annual cost would swell to between $1 trillion to $2 trillion. An accompanying reduction in welfare benefits for these workers would offset only a small fraction of this cost.

Even the low-end estimate of $1 trillion would create the largest federal program, exceeding even Social Security. It would be five times as expensive as the recent tax cuts and 12 times costlier than the recent defense-spending boost. Raising $1 trillion annually would require 70-to-80 percent federal income tax rates for single adults earning over $80,000 and couples earning more than $160,000. State and payroll taxes would leave these families paying total tax rates in the 80 to 90 percent range.

Meanwhile, the federal jobs guarantee would reduce funding for other programs. Social Security and Medicare face an $82 trillion cash deficit over the next 30 years. Liberal politicians have rallied around a single-payer health plan estimated to cost $32 trillion over ten years, as well as free college, more K-12 education spending, and universal pre-K. Yet once lawmakers have imposed 80-to-90 percent combined marginal tax rates to pay for a guaranteed jobs program, where would the money come from to pay for Social Security, Medicare, and these other items? Cutting defense spending to European levels would merely close one-seventh of the Social Security and Medicare funding shortfall. The liberal wish list would have no room for other priorities.

The compensation level for these guaranteed jobs, meantime, would destroy many private businesses. If any worker can take a government job with a $15 wage, full-time hours, and full benefits, then many industries operating on tight margins will not be able to compete for workers. Retail would likely shift further to the Internet, and fast-food restaurants would accelerate their shift to automation. Restaurants, landscapers, and industries dependent on cashiers and manual labor would survive on a limited basis, with notably higher prices.