Put them to work!!!

So I don't have anything to profound to same about the following article however I do think it's a great idea. Many of the members here and American citizens in general would/do advocate a program of the like. Why reward someone for sitting at home...whether it's a temporary situation or if their unemployment seems to be a chronic issue.

I see nothing wrong with providing welfare recipients with an incentive to work and programs like the one mentioned in the article and those that could be developed in the same vein would ultimately motivate people to either shape up and find a better job (for those who don't like working in general) and keep those who are temporarily unemployed because of the recession, etc. gainfully employed.

Could it be this easy? Just tell people they will get their check at the end of the week as long as they submit their time card that showed they worked their 40 hrs? Well of course not. Theoretically this seems like a great program. The government entity gets cheap labor and benefits from the tasks that the workers complete, thus getting something in return for the money that would be paid out regardless.

Enter the unions. Apparently having a program like this actually cost the government additional money due to previously signed union contracts. What a joke. I say start throwing these unions out, allow these artificially inflated wages deflate and start hiring some of the people that will perform these jobs for a reasonable amount of money.

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2011/03/29/20…

Sadly this was meant to be a post about putting some of these people to work (yes, I realize not all welfare recipients are bad people, etc.) however the article eventually mentioned how unions force the cost of this program up. Now, granted this is essentially free labor since these people would likely have collected a check anyways...so the extra money per hour should be offset by the money saved by not paying workers to keep the subway clean but it appears the government is willing to sacrifice having a clean subway anyways.

Regards