[astrange]

Trying to force companies to keep people longer than they want is how the social safety net works in some places (like Japan) and it's how the US healthcare system works, but both of those are, like, bad.

It's better to make it easier to quit and find a new job and support people in the meantime. Denmark as an example.

But to do this you have to have other ways to push people to stay productive.

[cdecker]

That's part of it, I'm not saying that companies should keep employees past their usefulness, I'm saying government intervention should be pro-citizen first, and pro-economy second (ideally the latter is a logical consequence of the former). Currently it seems like it's companies first, and workers maybe third to last, but only because companies still need workers (and they try really hard to make those obsolete too).

That results in profit maximizing for the few who made it to the carpet floors, and nothing for the rest. It's become too extractive, and short sighted.

[cdecker]

And yes, one of the government interventions that is pro-citizen could be better retraining programs, which are beneficial to companies too, but that's not the goal, it's to give people a motivation, and a sense of accomplishment, and part of the society.

[astrange]

More important one in the US is that unemployment insurance, which is designed to help workers at the expense of companies, is badly designed and a large disincentive to hire people.

https://www.niskanencenter.org/creating-a-more-dynamic-unemp...