WHY NO GOVERNMENT-RUN WPA, CWA, OR CCC TO HELP THE UNEMPLOYED WAS ASKED BY PAUL KRUGMAN IN HIS LATEST NYTIMES BLOG.
"You can make a pretty good case that just employing a lot of people directly would be a lot more cost-effective; the WPA and CCC cost surprisingly little given the number of people put to work. Think of it as the stimulus equivalent of getting the middlemen out of the student loan program.
"So why aren’t we doing this? Politics, of course: government is the problem, not the solution, even when it is, you know, the solution, and cheaper than running things through the private sector."
THE ANSWER? Obama seems to not have appointed an effective Labor Secretary. Few people know that Francis Perkins, FDR's female Labor Sec. and the first female cabinet member in history, was the major figure in not only the creation of social security, but unemployment insurance. She also created the major government-run make work programs, both as Labor Sec. and while FDR's Industrial Commissioner when FDR was New York State Governor! Where is such labor activism today? I'm afraid Obama's rhetoric hasn't matched his actions in supporting Labor...Hate to admit it.