[patmcc]

We could employ 100k people to dig holes and then fill them back in; should we?

We shouldn't employ people in economically un-viable ways just because they need income. We can just give them money directly, or redirect them to other work, or a combination of the two.

[ImPostingOnHN]

> We could employ 100k people to dig holes and then fill them back in; should we?

If that is what's necessary to provide a social safety net, then maybe so. See the works progress administration for an example of this.

> We can just give them money directly, or redirect them to other work

Ideally yes, but that isn't happening, hence the first option.

We may be straying here, though: this discussion didn't start out with someone saying what someone else should or shouldn't do. We were discussing the ethical and economic consequences of an idea.

[Moomoomoo309]

"My father worked two jobs to have money to throw in the money pit!" - The Onion

I wonder if we were in a post-scarcity world, what we'd think of stuff like this.