Noah Smith, Columnist

Need Work? Maybe That's a Job for Government

Lots of good things can happen when people are employed.

April 24, 2018 at 9:00 AM UTC

Noah Smith is a former Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He was an assistant professor of finance at Stony Brook University, and he blogs at Noahpinion.

It worked before.
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The other day, New Jersey U.S. Senator Cory Booker proposed a federal program guaranteeing a job for anyone who wants one. It’s an idea that sounds a lot more radical than it is. If properly implemented, a job guarantee -- or something like it -- could be a good way of both fighting recessions and getting more Americans into the workforce in the long term.

Economist Adam Ozimek, writing in Forbes, wasn't a fan of Booker’s plan, calling it “absurd” and “insane”: