Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by ultramundane8 2112 days ago
Could you elaborate on a plan (of course a really rough sketch) for "creating infrastructure jobs" during a global pandemic?

I agree with the premise, but I would like to know how to accomplish something like this. Especially if you have domain knowledge, it could be enlightening to the HN readership. There are a lot of accomplished people who read these forums, and it would be cool to see a seed get planted.
1 comments
conductr 2112 days ago
Need an unemployment check? Help build a bridge, road, dam, etc.

In my mind it’s super simple. Money for labor. Problem is, most Americans would revolt if you asked them to break a sweat.

link
petre 2112 days ago
Not every unemployed person could operate a buldozer. What would you have them do, lay bricks? Train them to use heavy machinery after working in hospitality services?

Germany does this with some amount of succes but I don't know how they do it. German socialism seems to work at the expense of a zero point growth figure. They still pay the solidarity tax for East Germany.

link
conductr 2111 days ago
Yes I actually would do this. Why can’t they lay bricks? Would they rather starve? There would need to be some training component for several jobs (bulldozer driver) but I think there could be a job that’s right for most. This is pretty similar to what the military does I believe, you get a job based on aptitude and such.

I don’t know if it’s the perfect solution but it feels more appropriate than our current approach. I don’t know much about the German way, I just know we pay for idle bodies while we have a lot of infrastructure that needs rebuilding.

link
ultramundane8 2111 days ago
Just from experience, I'm not sure I'd trust a military-style assessment to accurately identify skills. For example, I scored off the charts on linguistic comprehension (the Defense Language Aptitude Battery DLAB) and had a job as far from that as you can imagine.

It might be worth considering who "they" are (from your insanely outraging "why can't they lay bricks?" akin to "let them eat cake"). And why wouldn't "they" sweat for a good wage? Seriously, do some soul searching.

Your world is to make people starve or lay bricks?

link