T - Supplement 2 - Michigan 7 2023 BFHGR

T Supplement 2---BFGHR
Shoutout to Raleigh for these cards
Fiscal Redistribution
FR---AT: Taxes---GDP Analogy---1AR
Like FR, GPD increases occur when one component of it increases.
Scott Wolla 18, Ph.D. from Saint Louis University, 9/2/2018, "How Do Imports Affect GDP?," https://research.stlouisfed.org/publications/page1-econ/2018/09/04/how-do-imports-affect-gdp
Introduction
Gross domestic product (GDP) is the total market value, expressed in dollars, of all final goods and services produced in an economy in a given year. When compared with previous periods, GDP tells whether an economy is producing more output (expanding) or less output (contracting). As such, it is a useful measure of the health of the economy and among the most important and widely reported economic data. A variety of people, from business owners to policymakers, consider GDP when making decisions. Additionally, international trade is measured as part of GDP and is a large and growing component of our nation's economy. It's also an important, but controversial, political issue. However, the current textbook and classroom treatment of how international trade is measured as part of GDP can lead to misconceptions if not properly explained. This essay intends to correct misconceptions and provide clear instruction.
Measuring GDP
As you can imagine, measuring the value of all final goods and services produced in an economy is a challenging task. GDP can be measured equally well by counting either total expenditures or total income. Here is a very simple fictional example. Fred and Sarah live on Islandia, a remote island. Fred catches fish in the bay, and Sarah climbs trees to gather coconuts. In this case, Fred and Sarah both produce and purchase goods—Fred sells fish to Sarah, and Sarah sells coconuts to Fred. In a given period, Fred sells 10 fish to Sarah for 4 shells (island currency) per fish, or 40 shells total. Sarah gathers and sells 15 coconuts to Fred for 3 shells per coconut, or 45 shells total. We can measure the value of island production by either tracking their expenditures (spending) or by tracking the income each earns from producing and selling their goods. Fred's production yields 40 shells in income when he sells to Sarah, and Sarah's production yields 45 shells of income when she sells to Fred; using the income approach, the GDP of Islandia is 85 shells. Like­wise, if we track total spending, Fred spends 45 shells on coconuts, and Sarah spends 40 shells on fish; using the expenditure approach, the GDP of Islandia is also 85 shells. Because any spending is someone's income and vice versa, using either measurement approach results in the same answer. Of course, tracking an actual economy is a bit more complicated.
Domestic Expenditures
The typical textbook treatment of GDP is the expenditure approach, where spending is categorized into the following buckets: personal consumption expenditures (C); gross private investment (I); government purchases (G); and net exports (X – M), composed of exports (X) and imports (M). Textbooks often capture this in one relatively simple equation:
GDP = C + I + G + (X – M).
The equation is an identity—an equation that is true for all values of the variables because of the way the variables are defined (Table 1). So an extra dollar of spending on C, I, G, or X will also increase GDP by one dollar. In other words, if you purchase a $30,000 car (produced in the United States), that would add $30,000 to the personal consumption expenditures (C) category. GDP would also increase by $30,000. The same would be true if the spending had been by a business to invest (I) in technology or equipment or by government (G) to build infrastructure or fund public schools. The income approach should yield identical results because spending by one person is income for another.
FR---AT: Taxes---GDP Analogy---Ext---1AR
A GDP increase occurs when either goods or services increase.
Junko Edahiro 20, Professor at Shizenkan University, 11/9/2010, "From Our Hands, We Pass Nature's Torch: Junko Edahiro's Message to the World (Part Two)," https://japanfs.org/en/news/archives/news_id030379.html
As you know, GDP is counted when money moves, whether it be goods or services. There is no connection with whether or not it leads to happiness. More crime and environmental destruction increase GDP. Why? Because crime means that more time is used by the police, and the more chemicals and equipment used to clean the environment means more economic activity is counted. But no matter how much those things increase and GDP increases, we will not become happier.
Job Guarantee---Aff
JG---Generic Aff Card---2AC
A JG merely refers to direct-employment policies that remedy cyclical unemployment---prefer a survey of advocates over arcane micropolicy interpretations.
Dustin Guastella 22, coordinator on DSA’s National Design Committee and union staffer in Philadelphia, “Jobs for All: A Job Guarantee Puts Workers in the Driver’s Seat,” The Green New Deal and the Future of Work, Chapter 7, https://doi.org/10.7312/calh20556-007
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).
JG---AT: Excludes ELR---2AC
They’re interchangeable.
Bill Mitchell 11, professor of economics at the University of Newcastle, 4/19/2011, "Austerity proponents should adopt a Job Guarantee," https://billmitchell.org/blog/?p=14208
The term employer of last resort (ELR) is interchangeable with the term buffer stock employment (BSE) and Job Guarantee (JG). The latter two descriptions of the approach to full employment are found in the work of Mitchell whereas the ELR terminology is used by Wray.
JG---AT: Excludes ELR---1AR
ELR and JG are indistinct.
Peter Kriesler 20, Associate Professor of Economics at the University of New South Wales, et al., 9/2020, “Political Aspects of ‘Buffer Stock’ Employment: A Reconsideration,” https://ssrn.com/abstract=3678142
1 The term Buffer Stock Employment was used at the time of the Second Annual Path to Full Employment Conference, University of Newcastle, Australia, December 2-3 1999. Such models have since been referred to as the Job Guarantee – see, for example Mitchell (1998) and Mitchell (2001). The term ‘Employer of Last resort’ was originally preferred by US-based advocates of these schemes (see, for example, Wray, 1998a; Tcherneva, 2012a), although here, too, the term Job Guarantee is popular (Murray and Forstater, 2017; Tcherneva, 2018, 2020). We use these terms interchangeably in what follows.
Congress defines an ELR as a JG.
CBO 76 – Congressional Budget Office, 6/2/1976, “Congressional Budget Office Analysis of the Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act,” Congressional Record, ID: CR-1976-0603
S. 50 provides a limited job guarantee provision whereby the government would stand ready as employer of last resort to provide jobs at prevailing wages when adult unemployment exceeds 3 percent. The section mandates wage standards for the job guarantee program, standards which add to the inflationary impact of the bill. Higher wages, on the other hand, may have other benefits as an income maintenance device and a way to draw more attention to improving pay and working conditions in low-level private sector jobs.
JG---AT: Must Be MMT---2AC
Doesn’t have to be MMT
Malcolm Sawyer 19, emeritus professor of Economics at the University of Leeds, 2019, “Modern monetary theory: is there any added value?” Real-World Economics Review, Issue 89, http://www.paecon.net/PAEReview/issue89/Sawyer89.pdf
4. Job guarantee / employer of last resort
MMT authors have often associated themselves with proposals under the heading of employer of last resort/job guarantee (see, for example, Wray, 1998; Wray et al., 2019). As the term “job guarantee” or something similar have been used in association with a range of policy proposals which do not share many of the features of the MMT job guarantee schemes, I will refer here to job guarantee/employer of last resort (JG/ELR) to emphasise that it is the schemes proposed by the MMT people which is being discussed here. Schemes such as the American New Deal and its Public Works Programme through to the Argentinian Jefes y Jefas programme are cited as cases where some form of job creation and guarantee for specific groups have had some success. Programmes along these lines often have a considerable role to play in creating socially useful employment. But these do not fully fit with the criteria of the JG/ELR which is the provision of work for anyone at the minimum wage. The JG/ELR proposals of the MMT have the characteristics of offering a job (in the public sector or in non-profit organisations) at the minimum wage to anyone who seeks work, and that the JG scheme acts like a buffer stock providing employment when private demand (plus “mainstream” public demand) is low but not when it is high. The hiring of workers under JG/ELR is a conditional demand for labour – that is conditional on absence of sufficient demand in the private sector (and mainstream public employment). 6 As Wray put it
MMT “ALREADY had our full employment policy: the Job Guarantee (also called employer of last resort, public service employment and buffer stock employment). It was from the very beginning THE central stabilizing component of MMT … We have always insisted that the JG is inseparable from MMT” (Wray, 2019).
JG---AT: Unconditional---2AC
Operating counter-cyclically with the private sector is topical.
Malcolm Sawyer 19, emeritus professor of Economics at the University of Leeds, 2019, “Modern monetary theory: is there any added value?” Real-World Economics Review, Issue 89, http://www.paecon.net/PAEReview/issue89/Sawyer89.pdf
4. Job guarantee / employer of last resort
MMT authors have often associated themselves with proposals under the heading of employer of last resort/job guarantee (see, for example, Wray, 1998; Wray et al., 2019). As the term “job guarantee” or something similar have been used in association with a range of policy proposals which do not share many of the features of the MMT job guarantee schemes, I will refer here to job guarantee/employer of last resort (JG/ELR) to emphasise that it is the schemes proposed by the MMT people which is being discussed here. Schemes such as the American New Deal and its Public Works Programme through to the Argentinian Jefes y Jefas programme are cited as cases where some form of job creation and guarantee for specific groups have had some success. Programmes along these lines often have a considerable role to play in creating socially useful employment. But these do not fully fit with the criteria of the JG/ELR which is the provision of work for anyone at the minimum wage. The JG/ELR proposals of the MMT have the characteristics of offering a job (in the public sector or in non-profit organisations) at the minimum wage to anyone who seeks work, and that the JG scheme acts like a buffer stock providing employment when private demand (plus “mainstream” public demand) is low but not when it is high. The hiring of workers under JG/ELR is a conditional demand for labour – that is conditional on absence of sufficient demand in the private sector (and mainstream public employment). 6 As Wray put it
MMT “ALREADY had our full employment policy: the Job Guarantee (also called employer of last resort, public service employment and buffer stock employment). It was from the very beginning THE central stabilizing component of MMT … We have always insisted that the JG is inseparable from MMT” (Wray, 2019).
JG---Job Program---2AC
A jobs guarantee is any and all jobs program.
Matt Bruenig 18, founder of the People’s Policy Project, 5/13/2018, "Just What Is a Job Guarantee?," https://jacobin.com/2018/05/full-employment-job-guarantee-bernie-bruenig
Sawicky’s article, and the flowering of dozens of mutually incompatible proposals that all go under the name “job guarantee,” suggests to me that Matt Yglesias is probably right about how to ultimately treat this development. Rather than treating “job guarantee” as referring to a specific set of ideas coming from a specific set of scholars, what has happened (and what will continue to happen) is that “job guarantee” has become a catch-all slogan for any and all jobs programs. In this way, many thought leaders with radically different ideas can nonetheless be united in their goal for the creation of a “job guarantee.”
What this means, then, is that “job guarantee” is just the new “full employment.” The Left has been talking about full employment forever and making reference to that concept any time it is doing employment-promotion policy. “Full employment” never referred to a specific proposal, but rather an ambition or target to strive for. “Job guarantee” now fills the same role and also sounds a lot better than “full employment,” which means it is probably a positive development all things considered.
Of course, there is still a risk in all of this that something more akin to the canonical JG program gets implemented (rather than just ordinary public production now being called job guarantee, as Sawicky advocates) and thus a risk that we wind up with a new workfare. This is especially a concerning risk for as long as we keep talking about the job guarantee using the exact same rhetoric Democrats used to advocate for the 1996 welfare reform. But it seems the best strategy to mitigate that risk is probably the Sawicky one: adopt the new “full employment” slogan but work to fill it up with less objectionable content.
JG---Includes Benefits---2AC
‘JG’ includes benefits.
MMN 19 – Modern Money Network, 11/2/2019, "Job Guarantee," https://modernmoneynetwork.org/content/job-guarantee
DEFINITION
A government job guarantee is a proposed program where the government would provide a job with a basic wage and benefits package to anyone willing and ready to work. The job guarantee is one component of an overall program to stabilize an economy. The job guarantee is financially feasible when a sovereign government’s currency uses a floating exchange rate.
The job guarantee provides a floor for wages and benefits, creating a buffer stock of labor. The program is intended to “hire off the bottom,” i.e. those with less qualifications or skills. A job guarantee program hires people who otherwise cannot find employment. Once implemented, a job guarantee would be a permanent program, operating during good times and recessions alike.
Job Guarantee---Neg
JG---Excludes ELR---1NC
An ‘ELR’ is distinct from a JG.
Larry Wray 20, Professor of Economics at the Bard College, 2020, “Job Guarantee,” The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5_3080-1
‘Job Guarantee’ (JG) has become the favoured term applied to a variety of approaches that seek to ensure what can be described as true full employment. While often used as a synonym for ‘Employer of Last Resort’ (ELR), these terms evoke quite different framing. Employer of Last Resort implies that there is an entity that stands by to provide jobs to those who otherwise have failed to secure them. The term Job Guarantee implies a right to a job, although it does not indicate how that right will be secured. However, if we are to include the right to a job as similar to other recognized rights (right to life, right to free speech, right to vote, right to marriage), this would seem to imply that it is government that is to provide the guarantee. Many proponents of the JG do emphasize the human rights angle, interpreting the UN Charter on Human Rights as explicitly guaranteeing the right to access to a job (See Harvey 1989, 1993, 1999; Burgess and Mitchell 1998).
JG---Unconditional---1NC
‘JG’ must be unconditional.
Bill Mitchell 23, professor of economics at the University of Newcastle, 7/6/2023, "UN Report on employment guarantees misses the essential points about buffer stock mechanisms – William Mitchell – Modern Monetary Theory," https://billmitchell.org/blog/?p=60964
The Job Guarantee requires the state to unconditionally offer a job to any person who desire to work, which is a more explicit statement of the rights embodied in work.
JG---Fixed Wage---1NC
‘JG’ requires a fixed wage.
Brian Romanchuk 20, head of the Fixed Income Quantitative Analysis at the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge, 1/22/2020, "Job Guarantee as a Policy Variable," http://www.bondeconomics.com/2020/01/job-guarantee-as-policy-variable.html
The concept of a Job Guarantee is straightforward: the central government offers everyone a job at a fixed wage – the Job Guarantee wage. This wage would act like a minimum wage, and so if one wanted to imagine that if the programme was already implemented, the wage offered would presumably be somewhat lower than existing minimum wages in order to keep relative wage structures intact.
JG---Universal---1NC
A ‘jobs guarantee’ must be universal---targeted programs don’t fit within the criteria of it.
Malcolm Sawyer 19, emeritus professor of Economics at the University of Leeds, 2019, “Modern monetary theory: is there any added value?” Real-World Economics Review, Issue 89, http://www.paecon.net/PAEReview/issue89/Sawyer89.pdf
4. Job guarantee / employer of last resort
MMT authors have often associated themselves with proposals under the heading of employer of last resort/job guarantee (see, for example, Wray, 1998; Wray et al., 2019). As the term “job guarantee” or something similar have been used in association with a range of policy proposals which do not share many of the features of the MMT job guarantee schemes, I will refer here to job guarantee/employer of last resort (JG/ELR) to emphasise that it is the schemes proposed by the MMT people which is being discuss

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