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At no time has politics ever recognized full employment as a problem. With the Trump presidency, the moment to deal with the “problem” of full employment has arrived.
The problem is no longer that “they” are “stealing our jobs.” It is that too many rural or inner-city Americans cannot or will not migrate to the jobs employers are offering.
The idea that the American work ethic has eroded is similar to the immigration debate—interesting but going nowhere. More relevant is that after Donald Trump brought to the surface disaffected people in places such as Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, we learned more about the phenomenon of people who simply won’t move to take work. Why not?
It’s a long list. Because the home-mortgage deduction is too valuable and the shortage of housing (and construction workers) makes moving too expensive.
Because the vast expansion of state Medicaid and other entitlements has trapped more people into thinking that a low-grade life without work is good enough.
Because public schools leave the young semi-numerate and semi-literate. Because state occupational licensing deters millions from moving to jobs they’d be good at.
The true challenge now is not protecting U.S. workers from the rest of the world but liberating them inside their own country.
The problem is no longer that “they” are “stealing our jobs.” It is that too many rural or inner-city Americans cannot or will not migrate to the jobs employers are offering.
The idea that the American work ethic has eroded is similar to the immigration debate—interesting but going nowhere. More relevant is that after Donald Trump brought to the surface disaffected people in places such as Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, we learned more about the phenomenon of people who simply won’t move to take work. Why not?
It’s a long list. Because the home-mortgage deduction is too valuable and the shortage of housing (and construction workers) makes moving too expensive.
Because the vast expansion of state Medicaid and other entitlements has trapped more people into thinking that a low-grade life without work is good enough.
Because public schools leave the young semi-numerate and semi-literate. Because state occupational licensing deters millions from moving to jobs they’d be good at.
The true challenge now is not protecting U.S. workers from the rest of the world but liberating them inside their own country.