Why America Needs A Guaranteed Jobs Program
In 1935, already a handful of years into the Great Depression, President Franklin Roosevelt signed an executive order creating the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Hiring millions of unemployed American workers to complete various infrastructure and public-good projects such as maintenance of roads, building dams and the construction of parks and schools, the WPA constituted one of the most ambitious components of FDR's New Deal programs. Between 1935 and 1943, the WPA created nearly 8 million jobs. At its peak in 1938, the WPA provided paid jobs for 3 million unemployed adults, with unemployed youth also given work through their own division, the National Youth Administration. The goal of the WPA was to provide one paid job for all families in which the breadwinner suffered long-term unemployment. The stated goal of public building programs was to end the depression, or at least alleviate its worst effects. Millions of people needed subsistence incomes. Work relief was pr...