work for the dole... slightly different take on it.

Quick thought - i was at a recycling plant yesterday and a crap load of what they collect just gets dumped as its not cost effective to reuse.

A quick think also brought up some other potential uses for people that gives a public benefit. Mainly labour intensive jobs that in NZ cost too much to be normally viable.

Recycling is a public benefit that needs govt intervention (at least for the time being) so its not like its going to significantly put private business out of work. OR set them to work on areas that arent currently being serviced.

One area in particular would be collecting glass and sorting/ storing for reuse or turning into some of the recycled glass products such as aggregates or building materials.

Cleaning up beaches, parks etc.

Planting trees in erosion areas - might mean people have to go away for a week or so at a time but if theres no dependants then it could work.

breaking down discarded appliances and computers.

At the same time you could provide child care and other health services that some might not be getting access to. It would also sort out those who have potentially good job prospects and those that might need more training or whatever else rather than spending time/resources on everyone.

Im sure theres some problems to work out/around but could it work while we have increasing unemployment?

I think it's a brilliant idea bob.

There are a few opportunities like this, where it wouldn't "distort the market", but everybody is far too scared

How much you going to psay them for doing this?

depends on the situation, i would be more keen for paying/ removing expenses rather than directly paying - ie benefits but i believe to a degree that they are being paid by the govt and where fair they should be prepared to work for it. People on the dole are supposed to be actively seeking work so their circumstances should allow normal work hours.

Im not suggesting full time work, maybe 1 out of 4 weeks perhaps or something and at the same time it would be a training/assessment opportunity.

Depending on the skill level required for each job it may be that 1 day a week works or perhaps 2 weeks on 8 weeks off. It will of course depend on the amount of work versus the available jobless in the area and the physical requirements of the work.

Recycling is probably the easiest as the more people in the area the more work there would be to sort it. Planting trees might be more difficult in that regard.

Beach/river clean up, leaning up scrub, community projects where a couple of labourers are useful, etc etc.

The problem I've always had with work for the dole is it can be a bit demeaning. Lose your job and can't get another one then suddenly you are a 3rd class citizen/slave to the government.

I reckon though that your idea is on the right track, job-shared so that unemployed have a lot of free time to find employment. Fuck being stuck on a work for dole scheme because you are too buggered to sort your shit out after planting tress all day.

Nice bit of physical activity though, some people may find unexpected benefits from that alone.

everyone has the right to a job,

so I support work for the dole in principle.

Those seem like good areas for that sort of thing. I wouldn't couch it as "work for the dole" though - it's not about forcing work out of people to let them receive the state's welfare. It's about a recognition of providing to the community when the community are providing to you.
So call it "Community Better-ification"

Of course you should be able to force people to work for the state. I don't see a problem there. Especially if you are of left-wing political persuasion.

What is this "community" you talk about, and what is its political legitimacy? Nil.

that picture makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside vads

arbeit macht frei