Even Bernie Sanders’s version would replace existing welfare!
James K. Galbraith 20 (professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs and at the Department of Government, University of Texas at Austin), “Can Sanders Do it?,” 01/21/2020, Project Syndicate, https://www.project-syndicate.org/onpoint/what-if-bernie-wins-by-james-k-galbraith-2020-01
In this context, Sanders’s proposed job guarantee would act as a stabilization measure. It is designed to provide jobs at a relatively modest living wage to those who want them, when they want them, and not otherwise. In the context of a broadly strong economy with high employment (bolstered by the GND), the demand placed on the job guarantee would be small. Most people, even those released from prisons, would already be working in better jobs with higher wages and better career prospects. Only when the private economy falters – when the credit boom gives way to a credit crunch – would the alternative of a public job become attractive to more people.
In terms of the “costs,” it is important to remember that spending on the job guarantee would replace unemployment compensation, welfare, and some disability insurance as the safety net of choice for people who are able to work, because having a job is the best indicator of future employment prospects. So, in general and under normal conditions, the job guarantee’s expansionary effect on economic activity would be positive but modest. The virtue of the program is not so much in its effect on total activity, but that it creates a reserve capacity for dealing quickly with the human consequences of crises.