Tag: educator of first resort

–One step toward long-term economic growth: Government offer free college education

Mitchell’s laws:
●Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
●The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes. .
●Liberals think the purpose of government is to protect the poor and powerless from the rich and powerful. Conservatives think the purpose of government is to protect the rich and powerful from the poor and powerless.
●The single most important problem in economics is the gap between rich and poor.
●Austerity is the government’s method for widening the gap between rich and poor.
●Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
●To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments.
●Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap.

=========================================================================================================================================================================================================================

In SOLUTION FOR THE GAP, I suggested that the long-term solution for unemployment was not for the government to be the “employer of last resort,” as Modern Monetary Theory (aka neo-chartalism) suggests, but rather for the government to be the “educator of first resort.”

That is, the government should pay not only for elementary, middle and high school, but also for college and advanced degrees. Further, I suggest that the government pay a wage for college attendance, to encourage the impoverished who might otherwise have to decide between work and education.

Low skilled jobs are disappearing from the economy. (See the lists, below.) Those without an advanced education will be at an increasing disadvantage. Merely putting people to work in such jobs can indeed address a short-term money problem, but it can exacerbate future economic problems.

Someone earning a living wage as a Walmart greeter, may be less motivated or have less opportunity to attend college, and so forever be relegated to low-paying jobs or increasingly, no job at all.

While many people do not wish to attend, or do not have the aptitude for, college, the government should do everything possible to facilitate college attendance, as a way to prepare for the future economic growth of America.
————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
U.S. Department of Labor

The 30 occupations with the largest employment declines, 2008-18

Most significant source of postsecondary education: On the job training for all 30

Farmers and ranchers
Sewing machine operators
Order clerks
Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators
File clerks
Shipping, receiving, and traffic clerks
Telemarketers
Office and administrative support workers
Packers and packagers, hand
Cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic
Electrical and electronic equipment assemblers
Machine feeders and offbearers
Door-to-door sales workers, news and street vendors, and related workers
Information and record clerks, all other
Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders
Computer operators
Machinists
Laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, hand
Miscellaneous agricultural workers
Data entry keyers
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers
Switchboard operators, including answering service
Mail clerks and mail machine operators, except postal service
Lathe and turning machine tool setters, operators and tenders, metal and plastic
Grinding, lapping, polishing, and buffing machine tool setters, operators, and tenders
Textile winding, twisting, and drawing out machine setters, operators, and tenders
Postal service clerks
Multiple machine tool setters, operators, and tenders
Photographic processing machine operators
————————————————————————————————
The 30 fastest-growing occupations, 2008-18

Most significant source of postsecondary education See list:

Biomedical engineers: Bachelors degree
Network systems and data communications analysts: Bachelor’s degree
Home health aides: Short-term on-the-job training
Personal and home care aides: Short-term on-the-jobtraining
Financial examiners: Bachelor’s degree
Medical scientists, except epidemiologists: Doctoral degree
Physician assistants: Master’s degree
Skin care specialists: Postsecondary vocational award
Biochemists and biophysicists: Doctoral degree
Athletic trainers: Bachelor’s degree
Physical therapist aides: Short-term on-the-job training
Dental hygienists: Associate degree
Veterinary technologists and technicians: Associate degree
Dental assistants: Moderate-term on-the-job training
Computer software engineers, applications: Bachelor’s degree
Medical assistants: Moderate-term on-the-job training
Physical therapist assistants: Associate degree
Veterinarians: First professional degree
Self-enrichment education teachers: Work experience in a related occupation
Compliance officers, except agriculture, construction, health and safety, and transportation: Long-term on-the-job training
Occupational therapist aides: Short-term on-the-job training
Environmental engineers: Bachelor’s degree
Pharmacy technicians: Moderate-term on-the-job training
Computer software engineers, systems software: Bachelor’s degree
Survey researchers: Bachelor’s degree
Physical therapists: Master’s degree
Personal financial advisors: Bachelor’s degree
Environmental engineering technicians: Associate degree
Occupational therapist assistants: Associate degree
Fitness trainers and aerobics instructors: Postsecondary vocational award
————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
http://www.rodgermitchell.com

No nation can tax itself into prosperity

–A partial solution for the gap between rich and poor: Education

Mitchell’s laws:
●Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
●The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes. .
●Liberals think the purpose of government is to protect the poor and powerless from the rich and powerful. Conservatives think the purpose of government is to protect the rich and powerful from the poor and powerless.
●The single most important problem in economics is the gap between rich and poor.
●Austerity is the government’s method for widening the gap between rich and poor.
●Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
●To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments.
●Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap.

=========================================================================================================================================================================================================================

The debt hawks are to economics as the creationists are to biology.
==========================================================================================================================
AFASDF
Graph of United States income distribution from 1947 through 2007 inclusive, normalized to 2007 dollars. The data source is “Table F-1. Income Limits for Each Fifth and Top 5 Percent of Families (All Races): 1947 to 2007”, U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, Annual Social and Economic Supplements.

In Closing the financial gap, I showed how direct money transfers don’t close the gap, and I asked, “Is closing the gap economically wise? That is, would our economy grow better, and would our population live better, happier, more rewarding lives overall, if there were little or no gap?”

I believe attention paid to closing the gap, by bringing down the rich, is a diversion from the real economic and moral questions that surround poverty. Concern about the rich feeds on that commonly felt class jealousy to which politicians respond with counter-productive laws, which do nothing for the poor or for the economy.

Classic example: Inheritance taxes. They have little effect on tax collections, and to the degree they would affect tax collections, they also would reduce economic growth. And they do nothing to improve the lot of the poor. These, and all other attempts to reduce the gap, by punishing the rich, tend to hurt the economy and the people who most want the gap reduced.

Punishing the rich should not be the goal, but rather we should try to lift our poorest, regardless of whether or not that closes or even opens the gap. In the previous post I suggested that just as government pays for elementary school, middle school and high school, why not have the government pay for college and even advanced degrees? This would give the poor a better opportunity to lift themselves.

One reader expressed concern this actually could have an adverse effect on the economy: “The world still needs ditch diggers,” he wrote.

My response: “The world does not need ditch diggers. The world needs ditches to be dug. Slowly, inexorably, society is moving away from dumb human labor and toward smart machine labor. Those people who do not have an education will not just be relegated to the lowest jobs. They will have no jobs at all. There simply will be no ditch-digging work available.”

While I agree with Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) in many ways, one of my disagreements is its dual goal of price stability and full employment. MMT calls for the government to be the employer of last resort, so that everyone who wants a job, has a job. But MMT ignores job quality in its quasi-charity approach. Giving jobs to everyone surely would devolve to giving money to everyone for little or no work at all.

While unemployment seems to correspond with recessionary times, I see no evidence that unemployment causes recessionary times. Some might even say that unemployment helps stimulate the prevention and cure of recessions just as hunger feelings help stimulate the prevention and cure of starvation. In fact, that is the very purpose of hunger feelings.

In short, unemployment may be only a symptom, just as hunger is a symptom of starvation. Curing the hunger symptom does not cure the starvation disease, as any anorexic should know. Focusing on the symptom may divert attention from the fundamental problem, which is acquisition ability (AA)– people’s ability to acquire what they want.

MMT may claim full employment is not a symptom, but rather a path toward the AA goal. MMT wants the government to achieve full employment by providing a job to anyone who wants one, and apparently the job can be anything. But I suspect a nation of Walmart greeters is not desirable.

So what about a nation of college grads? Is that better? Despite the typical “Who-will-dig-the-ditches?” questions, the answer may be, “Yes.”

A college grad, digging ditches, may be more likely to think of better ditch-digging methods, to the benefit of society. This is an extreme example, and I’ve left the psychology of job satisfaction out of the mix, but I speculate that education will lift the economy, meaning MMT’s focus on jobs is fundamentally wrong.

Rather than the government being the employer of last resort, perhaps the government should be the educator of first resort. That might do more to lift the poor and lift America, than giving people low level, dead-end jobs.

In summary, the problem is not specifically the gap, but poverty. The partial solution is not low end jobs, but education.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
http://www.rodgermitchell.com

No nation can tax itself into prosperity