Federal Job Guarantee popular.

A federal jobs guarantee is not a new idea. In fact, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt proposed one in his Economic Bill of Rights. Every American, he asserted, has the right to “a job; an adequate wage and decent living; a decent home; medical care; economic protection during sickness, accident, old age, or unemployment; and a good education.” As part of his famous New Deal to combat the Great Depression, FDR established the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a government agency dedicated to employing unskilled, out-of-work Americans for public infrastructure projects across the nation. Around 8.5 million people gained employment through the WPA. Unlike many New Deal programs which were struck down by the US Supreme Court, the WPA dissolved in 1943 as the US wartime economy boomed and reached full employment.

"American capitalism, as it stands, fails its workers and fails its citizens.

Several notable Democrats have already come out in favor of a federal jobs guarantee. New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand advocated for full employment sponsored by the government during her 2020 presidential primary campaign. Known progressives, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York’s 14th District and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, have both endorsed a jobs guarantee. While no Republicans have come out in support of one, a federal jobs guarantee can appeal to the core of both the Republican and Democratic parties. For Democrats, an FJG builds upon the party’s history of commitment to the American working class. Meanwhile, Republicans can rally behind a program that rewards work with a paycheck rather than blanket unemployment payments.

A federal jobs guarantee is also popular among registered voters. In a recent Civis Analytics poll, voters overwhelmingly support a jobs guarantee by a 23-point margin. Even among 2016 Trump voters, 32 percent support such a plan. Support is not concentrated in deep-blue states like California or Massachusetts, either. The same poll, cross-tabulated across all 50 states, reveals a majority favorability in every single state, with its highest favorability in typically deep-red and purple states including Mississippi, North Carolina, and Georgia.

How exactly, though, does a jobs guarantee combat the issues Americans face in the wake of Covid-19? Common criticisms of such a program include its price tag, a reduction in free-market competition, increased inflation, and the logistical challenges for administration and training. However, the very criticisms a jobs guarantee receives largely reflect the current realities such a program would combat. Worries of inflation due to full employment can be assuaged as the Fed can then manage inflation without increasing unemployment. Furthermore, take the predicted price tag of the program. At face value, the program could cost 2.3 percent of GDP – about $450 billion to employ and provide benefits to reach full employment in 2018. However, the reduction in demand for unemployment payments and related welfare programs mitigates this high net cost, as new workers rise above the poverty line. A study conducted by the Levy Economics Institute predicts the actual cost could be as low as 1 percent of GDP. Not only that, but every dollar spent on government workers is a dollar infused into the economy to multiply and is exchanged for the product of the workers’ labor. A jobs guarantee does not work like most social programs in that the economic benefit is based on hand-out spending; the very nature of the program ensures increased production for otherwise idle workers experiencing financial stagnation or hemorrhage.