We could use another WPA for America. Worked then, works now. - A NEW "New Deal" for America. Okay, I-35 and the AFL-CIO debate jogged my memory, but my Dad proposed a new WPA years ago, when I was in High School. He saw how many kids came out of there (and from college, too!) without knowing what they wanted to do, and with no idea of what public service could be.
From the wiki - The Works Progress Administration (later Work Projects Administration; WPA) was the largest and most comprehensive New Deal agency, employing millions of people and affecting most every locality ... It was created on May 6, 1935 by Presidential order ... It continued and extended the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) relief programs started by Herbert Hoover and continued under Franklin D. Roosevelt. Headed by Harry L. Hopkins, the WPA provided jobs and income to the unemployed during the Great Depression in the United States. The program built many public buildings, projects and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media and literacy projects. It fed children, redistributed food, clothing and housing.
more -
*Until closed down by Congress and the war boom in 1943, the various programs of the WPA added up to the largest employment base in the country .... Anyone who needed a job could become eligible for most of its jobs.
Can you IMAGINE how GREAT it would be to do this, and to get all these core Democratic values out there, in the real world? A few of my Kossian friends seem to agree - check out this thread from mcjoan's AFL-CIO Debate Thread I - http://www.dailykos.com/...
"Think about all the problems this would solve- Our infrastructure is crumbling because we're spending our money to fight wars around the world because we are energy dependent. On top of that, you put teenagers to work on infrastructure or in education or any thing else you can think of...give them some experience and an education and we'll have the scientists and engineers and the mathematicians that will help us lead the world again. Let's lead by example. Let's show the world what a peaceful nation's priorities should be." - Thanks, friends. :)
What do you think? How can we get this out there and DONE?