If you had the chance to be the Roosevelt of our time what jobs would you provide?

I wouldn't. Things are very different now. People would not be willing to be rounded up into labour gangs and sent out to some remote part of the country to build roads, power plant etc. Apart from anything else these schemes are immensely complicated these days and reuires properly ualified engineers.

Also do you know anything about the conditions, the corruption and deaths that came out of these schemes?

I believe Bechtel still has active legal sanctions stopping anyone revealing exactly what happened on their projects. I hope we would never introduce into this country a scheme like Roosevelt's New Deal.

WE also do not have vast swathes of the country in need of rural electricity thousands of miles of basic dirt track.

Work camps were set up in this country between the two world wars. Here is an interesting link downloads.bbc.co.uk/rmhttp/radio4/making-history/able-bodies.pdf

This would not work now, times and attitudes have changed.

I hadn't suggested they were set up in the same way Monica; everything gets updated, particularly after so many years. I was hoping a little imagination might help with the heat!

Consider yourself told off M0nica, clearly not the answer OP was wanting.

I think a national scheme to sort out the potholes would be a good idea.

Potholing Repair Teams working round the country, paid for by the government, (taxpayers).

Plenty of never ending work, I think.

MawsRosie

Consider yourself told off M0nica, clearly not the answer OP was wanting.

No, I am not told off. It is the natural exchange of views.

I think if we were to look for any scheme as worth reviving it might be an updated version of the YTS scheme introduced in the 1980s. That scheme certainly had its defects, but I think a scheme that was compulsory for NEATS and included elements of social skills and picking up educational problems, together with basic working skills.

I think any scheme will need to be local and deal with local needs. I would point out that repairing potholes, so that they stay repaired is a skilled jobs. There is more to it than shoving tarmac in a hole and packing it down.

Government has given LAs extra money for pothole repairs, so I wouldn’t make that a priority.

I’d concentrate on future proofing as much as possible against climate change, not only in the alternative power generation industry but in a faster programme of upgrading our old housing stock to cope with expected vicissitudes in weather (extreme heat, flooding etc).
As part of the upgrading I’d look to separate household sewage removal from grey water so that some could be reused.

As water is an increasingly precious resource I’d look to infrastructure upgrading, to eliminate water waste, to stop sewage discharges into rivers and seas and to improve drinking water purification times. Of course, we desperately need new reservoirs.

I think that those initiatives would provide a very wide spectrum of jobs and obvious benefits to local service economies.

I would make sure every prisoner in the country was in full time education or in work.

The best rehabilitation is employment, learning new skills and education.

Before anyone mentions the expense, it would be hopefully much cheaper long term as the reoffending rate would go down.

I would make sure everybody had access to the best communication networks. Personally, my home internet and connections are superb and I never have problems with my TV connection, but I'm horrified when I visit people who can't get a signal on their phone, unless they go to the end of their garden (or somewhere) or have problems with their TV reception breaking up in summer. Everybody should have the same connections I do, even if they live out in the sticks.

Better connections would allow more efficient home working, relocation of businesses to more remote areas, better tele healthcare, less loneliness and provide thousands of jobs. People would end up with a skill, which would need to be updated but would never become redundant, as technology continues to evolve.

Re pothole repairs.

I wasn’t suggesting just shoving a bit of tarmac in a hole, I meant proper lasting repairs, and yes, done by teams of skilled workers.

That’s what’s sadly lacking in so much nowadays, jobs done efficiently by workers who know what they are doing.

Good ideas MaizieD

There are so many projects which would involve people helping ourselves to a generally better quality of life, eg health/social care, transport (inc potholes), cleaner water, internet connections, education (inc reintroduction of evening classes, modernising property. Yes, we'd probably pay a little for the projects, either by taxes or subscriptions, but more people would be employed, so the Treasury would pay less in benefits and the money people earned would be circulated in the economy, thus boosting retail, personal services, entertainment, etc. Win, win all round.

These programs had two main goals: Give unemployed people immediate income through paid work. Leave behind infrastructure that would support long-term economic growth.

When we've visited Washington DC we've enjoyed the lovely Suitland Parkway. East of the city, limited access. It's a pleasant drive, FDR project.

Similar beautiful 1930-1950s road projects surround the city.

If I could choose -- limited access (no commercial vehicles) wide roads with no potholes, would be a lovely useful project.

Perhaps elected metropolitan mayors could come up with a programme for their electorate area- perhaps in consultation with their constituents? Would be Democratic, regional, not Westminster or Government centric, community focussed and have potential to support regional growth?

Councils in nearby proximity could apply to be involved if they wanted?`

CatsWhiskas

There are so many projects which would involve people helping ourselves to a generally better quality of life, eg health/social care, transport (inc potholes), cleaner water, internet connections, education (inc reintroduction of evening classes, modernising property. Yes, we'd probably pay a little for the projects, either by taxes or subscriptions, but more people would be employed, so the Treasury would pay less in benefits and the money people earned would be circulated in the economy, thus boosting retail, personal services, entertainment, etc. Win, win all round.

I think we hadn’t to bother about the cost of our proposals. Roosevelt’s New Deal was the deliberate injection of new money into the economy, the Keynesian ‘spend your way out of a recession’. Of course it worked to a great extent.

Yes, we'd probably pay a little for the projects, either by taxes or subscriptions,

New Deal money didn’t come out of taxation or any revenue stream as far as I’m aware. It was completely new money. Because that’s what governments with sovereign currencies can do.

Even better if it's new money. Funnily enough, I thought you might be along to write what you did. My point really was that even if it's not new money, it would result in money being spent on something constructive rather than just paying people to claim unemployment benefits (I know it's not quite that simple).

LemonJam

Perhaps elected metropolitan mayors could come up with a programme for their electorate area- perhaps in consultation with their constituents? Would be Democratic, regional, not Westminster or Government centric, community focussed and have potential to support regional growth?

Councils in nearby proximity could apply to be involved if they wanted?`

I think there would need to be some national projects too. Transport, for example, doesn't have regional boundaries. For example, the northern east-west rail network needs upgrading, so that Liverpool has better links with Manchester and Leeds and then towards York and Newcastle, but that involves a number of regions.

There can be cross regional collaboration on national projects - agree that could be a good thing.

I think if we were to look for any scheme as worth reviving it might be an updated version of the YTS scheme introduced in the 1980s.

An updated YTS is an interesting one M0nica. NEATS are very troubling at the moment; there are too many missing out on what first jobs bring. Local meeting local needs should suit AB and his "place not politics" views. We know the issues that arise from not looking at the local needs, for example, no real attempt to replace mining jobs as the mines we closed.

Prisoners in Norway are required to work or study as part of a "duty of care", Sago and I think that's the sort of system we tried to follow here. I imagine it severly underfunded at the moment. Another one for the list but I think you have to allow the Minister to fight hard for this area - although that may be the problem with any suggested move. Ministers just don't have enough power!

LemonJam

Perhaps elected metropolitan mayors could come up with a programme for their electorate area- perhaps in consultation with their constituents? Would be Democratic, regional, not Westminster or Government centric, community focussed and have potential to support regional growth?

Councils in nearby proximity could apply to be involved if they wanted?`

This sounds a bit like AB was saying some time back when he compared the Combined Authorities to the German Landers. I still don't know as much as I would like to to make that comparison but I do believe in community so I wonder if, at least to some extent, they should be allowed to choose?

Roosevelt’s New Deal was the deliberate injection of new money into the economy, the Keynesian ‘spend your way out of a recession’. Of course it worked to a great extent. Maizie

The largest amount came from borrowing apparently, then taxes, then money creation " Unlike more recent periods such as after the 2008 financial crisis or during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Federal Reserve was not the dominant financier of government deficits during most of the New Deal era." An often-overlooked source of financial strength was international gold.
[AI]

That seems reasonable given the times. Does it chime with your thinking Maizie?

What are you quoting from, DAR?

MaizieD

What are you quoting from, DAR?

Sorry , I’ve realised it’s an AI summary. Did it cite a source or sources?

Id encourage people to set up their own business by making it easier So for example Preston rail station seems to have a lot of disused buildings Let people test how much they can sell something without ridiculous rents use empty buildings