[simonh]

Now you need to move and re-house the people to when it needs doing, train them, invest the capital costs needed, build out the administrative overhead, and tax the productive profitable economy to pay for it all.

If there are things that need doing, you need to consider is it better for the government to do it, or to pay the private sector to do it. In principle the latter will still need to employ people.

[hgomersall]

How can the private sector magically do it without all those things you describe? In any case, the point is to employ people doing something useful - tending public gardens, removing graffiti, repairing roads etc etc.. this will all take place local to the unemployed. Indeed, being local is part of the point since it directly impacts neglected areas.

The objective is to make use of the lost resource that comprises the unemployed, whilst also removing the social problem of having long term unemployed. It has the final benefit of anchoring the value of the currency against a unit of unskilled labour.