Now that I’ve had even more time to ponder it, this kind of idea seems unworkable from the get-go. There are just too many complications, inherent unfairness, and more.
Say, for just one example, that I was told that in order to get my unemployment check for the week, I would have to report for an outdoor litter pick-up detail, and the forecast for the day is in the triple digits. If I refused on the grounds that I can’t work in that kind of heat, should I lose out on funds for that week? Or if I show up and faint from heat stroke, can I sue and collect lots more money than I would have had before?
Having recently gone through 3 years of unemployment from an injury that made me unable to work, I know that most unemployed people want to work. Rather than turn my temporary disability into permanent, I looked for work and took a temporary part-time holiday job in 2013. I’m still there.
Most employed people want to work. The USA seems to encourage people to get on disability–something I was encouraged to do by 13 government employees!!!
And do not forget-these “work” programs are often bitterly opposed by government employees. need a park cleaned up? Sweep the sidewalks? clean public buildings? Sure-only if unemployed people are hired to do these jobs, the public employees unions will file lawsuits against this (“you are taking bread from our children’s mouths”). A lot of things do not get done because of this.
How to treat the unemployed is a complex problem because there are so many different reasons that people are unemployed. I’ve known people who jump from job to job working just long enough to qualify for UE and then do something to get fired and collect it until it’s gone, followed by finding another short-term job , more UE and another quickie job. People like that are very much like the chronic welfare offenders and truly aren’t interested in a steady job. There’s precious little one can do to get them to keep any job offered.
But the majority of folks who are unemployed have legitimate reasons for it and would happily do something to get off it. No, I don’t think you can force manual labor on someone who’s never done that type of work. But there are charities who would welcome skilled business people to help them out, giving the unemployed person something to do to ‘earn’ his UE check and giving the charity some help. That would avoid the previously stated problem with the old WPA-style projects that would ruffle the feathers of the public employee unions.
The third group to consider is that of displace workers whose skills are no longer needed. I think there has been a decent effort to actively retrain these people, but retraining takes time and the more time spent between last job and next job, the more difficult it is for folks to jump back into the employment stream. Things change so incredibly rapidly. Perhaps giving them an opportunity to do something productive on a part-time basis would help both them and their skills.
In Texas, you have to accept any position offered to you that pays 90% of your last position, otherwise you stand to lose your benefit. After 6 weeks (IIRC), it drops to 75%.