[Washington Post] Bernie Sanders to announce plan to guarantee every American a job

Not really, humans just switch more complex job to solve other problems. Can we cure any kind of diseases right now?

 

Bernie Sanders was talking free education at college level at a time. This guy just sucks, he likes free for everything without working hard.

 

Do you expect the vast majority of the people in this country or this world to do that kind of super specialized tasks? Maybe if we find a way to make everyone have an IQ of 200+ through genetic enhancement one day.

 

So, spouting the company line, rather than answering the actual question. Got it.

And, in this impending 'revolution'...what makes you think those military weapons are useless? What do you think would happen if we got rid of them, in the midst of that 'revolution'? Pretty much every major war was fought over resources. We'd have them, and we'd have no way to defend them. So...others would just come take them. THEN who is paying for everything??

 

I actually was open to the free college education initially, thinking it would actually pay for itself with more productive citizens, earning more money, and hence paying more taxes. BUT, in talking through this with others, they pointed out: If everyone is getting a free college education, what is the value of it? ie, it wouldn't necessarily lead to any increased productivity, just more outlay. If you were getting an electrical engineering degree, but now you are competing with thousands of others who also got an electrical engineering degree now, are corporations going to pay you much? No, they won't. Things that you get for free tend to have no value. This is essentially the conundrum for all these proposals. If you just give it away, what is the value of it?

 

I see no reason for half measures, let's just skip a few steps and make the minimum wage 100 bucks an hour, then everyone will be rich because that's totally possible by jacking up the minimum wage.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slippery_slope

 

For purposes of discussion, that difference is .. ?

 

I get why you'd say that, but honestly, if I had been talking about a 15 dollar an hour minimum wage 20 years ago as a ridiculous proposition back when the minimum wage was 5.15 an hour you'd have likely suggested that it was the same. The talk then was "We're just talking about going up to 5.85, not 15 dollars, don't be ridiculous". Make the poverty level based on 15 bucks an hour and they'll soon be calling that a slave wage and demanding an increase....those types of simpletons will never learn because as one crop of naive children wise up, there is another crop of naive children to take their place.

 

I had a free ride by a neighbor to the auto shop this morning and I cannot tell him that his favor has no value to me...

free college has no value? How absurd is that! what do you do in collage, paid or free? not learning anything? You don't get paid based on your knowledge? competition is no good?

I would like to have a free house that has no value.

 

Mamby Pamby! $1,000 an hour! And a Ferrari in every garage!

Curious...does Bernie pay everyone that helps in his campaign at least $15/hr?
Does he even pay most of them at all? Has the press asked him this or researched it, or failed in their jobs yet again...

PS: A short google search effort indicates he does pay his interns, which is unusual, although only $12 hour, and that he has a site for volunteers, which by definition indicates unpaid effort. So, good on the intern, bad on the volunteers. Why doesn't Bernie follow his own advice and pay them?

 

Free college education doesn't equate to guaranteed admission. This is simply about controlling the cost of higher education. Schools still have limited resources and have to determine who gets in. Not everyone will end up with a college education if tuition were subsidized or free. Taxpayer funded higher education exists in several European countries. You still have to apply for school there and be admitted.

And even if tuition isn't free, we could do a lot to reduce the cost of higher education. In Texas, both colleges and public education have seen steady drops in funding (per student). This is purely a cost question.

 

Under proposals like Bernie's you would be competing with MORE people. and for fewer jobs.

 

I doubt I'll write anything here on this topic you haven't read before. So, I'll address what I think is a larger-picture issue: an overwhelming majority of contemporary conservative argumentation is built upon 1) slippery slope fallacies and 2) false dichotomies.

I think it makes for good sales in modern politics, actually: always speak reductively. All problems are reduced to soundbites, all problems have simple black and white solutions. Everything can be described in terms of perfect good and perfect bad, and all solutions are either perfect or otherwise useless. It's appealing.

It's unconvincing for adults looking for pragmatic, real-world solutions to present day real-world problems.

I'm not saying I'm all for this "jobs for everyone" proposition, they're going to have to make the hard sell of how much they'll raise taxes to pay for it.

Responding to every economic proposition with slippery slopes is political dialogue for kids.

 

From just a basic standpoint, the industrial revolution created significant demand for labor that was overwhelmingly most beneficial to the middle class at the time. How is automation going to be similar at all when it comes to the impact on employment? If anything, it's going to have the complete opposite impact by being a boon to the elites who control the means of production while hurting the middle and lower classes the most with significant job losses. I don't know where you see any similarities outside of perhaps an increase in efficiency on the production side of things.

 

Higher ed costs are ridiculous. Making it free doesn't fix that, though. It just sends the bill to someone else.

 

This IS Bernie Sanders.

I am always extremely skeptical of populists that promise the world, usually they just want control.

Bernie is one of the select few that seem sincere........ but his proposal is absurd.

Do you know how you get Chairman Trump re-elected???? By having someone on the left promising this bullshit.

 

As John List once reminded me; "when it comes to economics the road to hell is paved with good intentions."

 

You know the guy means well, and really cares, and I love and respect him for that. But in all his time in the Senate he's never had to really build a coalition an make something serious happen.

He's a dreamer.