To me, the most appealing and effective aspect of Bob Pollin’s book Back to Full Employment is the fact that he puts hard numbers on the concrete economic and fiscal benefits of putting Americans back to work. At a time when politicians are consumed (disproportionately) with the issue of public deficits and debts, they have lost sight of the crucial economic challenge: facilitating productive work.
After all, the deficit was caused by financial crisis, recession, and unemployment; before then, budgets were in balance. In other words, it is obvious that a weak economy caused the deficit – not the other way around (as so many commentators assume). And so the solution to the deficit is obvious: put people back to work, paying taxes instead of receiving UI benefits, and the deficit will take care of itself.
