A JG merely refers to direct-employment policies that remedy cyclical unemployment---prefer a survey of advocates over arcane micropolicy interpretations.

Matt Bruenig criticizes the idea for its lack of clarity.8 He claims that “the flowering of dozens of mutually incompatible proposals that all go under the name ‘job guarantee’ ” suggests that the proposal is more of a rhetorical move than a policy proposal.9 Bruenig is of course right to notice that there have been multiple policies floating around that go by the name of “job guarantee,” but this only indicates interest and affection for the slogan, not some weakness inherent in the motivating ideas. My own feeling is that the interpretation of any policy by the press, the public, and political leaders is more important than the myriad micropolicy mechanisms of any given white paper. A good demonstration of this is how the press has intentionally distorted the meaning of “Medicare for All.” They have done this against both the text of the bills themselves and the myriad and detailed explanations of the utility and cost- effectiveness of the proposal by policy experts. This is to say that distortions of any idea by its opponents remains an intractable political problem, not a policy one. It follows, then, that defining the phrase job guarantee is the business of political campaigners, leaders, and advocates— not policy writers alone. Nevertheless, a survey of contemporary proposals suggests that a job guarantee refers to a set of policies that, when combined, are meant to remedy both structural and cyclical unemployment through direct, state-led employment. Good proposals do this by combining massive public infrastructure projects— thus creating expanded permanent or semipermanent public sector employment— with a more flexible solution for cyclical downturns. In other words, a robust job guarantee combines the “employer of last resort” principle (where the state swells to absorb unemployed workers in periods of recession and contracts during periods of recovery and stability) with an old-fashioned public works program. Good proposals also set a wage floor that is well above the current minimum wage and stem the possibility of downward pressure on wages through prevailing- wage clauses and limitations on redundant jobs. Such a policy also requires the establishment of employment offices and complementary active labor market policies (to fit job- seekers to jobs).