Peter Schiff actually talks about this at some length in one his weekly updates. The real problem here is demand. Or a lack there of it. We could have full employment and put everyone to work. But that furloughs an offsetting amount of private sector workers and stifles further competition from Government subsidized labor. Similar to how prison industries bankrupt the private sector: slave or subsidized labor is an unfair trade advantage that bankrupts private sector business who can't compete at below-cost. While the Government can and does operate below cost via taxpayer subsidy or legal force (pay prisoners far below minimum wage). Basically, Chinese factories in America.
It may not bring down overall unemployment, by much but it would definately bring down the number of people collecting welfare and unemployment benefits, and there has to be ways to make us save money on jobs which a monkey could do anyways. What about those guys who rake ashphalt? I have heard of those guys making 20-25 dollars an hour plus benefits, you could train a monkey to do that work. More than anything it is designed to serve as a deterrent to people who abuse the system, and there are plenty of them out there. I know of some trades guys who are making more money now then they were before, working cash jobs just running ads in the paper, and collecting unemployment insurance, the system is fraught with people who are currently abusing it.
You could train a monkey to do it, but you couldn't get a monkey to do it, unless you pay them 20-25 bananas an hour plus benefits.
Like i said before, it is designed as a deterrent, when i was 21 and had to work 10 hour days driving tent spikes into the ground, for only 9 dollars an hour just to eat, you can bet your ass i never wanted to go back to doing that again, also most of these tents we were setting up were on rich peoples properties for special events, so it was very motivating. Im actually kind of happy i went through that period in my life cause rarely a day goes by any more where i dont use it as my motivation to keep busting my ass and making myself rich. P.S. I would gladly pay a trained army of monkeys 20-25 bananas an hour to do these jobs
Correct besides monkeys are more expensive and lazier than min wage workers. 20-25$/hr sounds like a union contract in there somewhere skimming gubbermint resources.