Prominent Democrats have begun signing on to a plan for a federal jobs guarantee. The scope of the plan is enormous: The government would provide a job at $15 per hour with health care and other benefits to any American who wanted one. The proposal is apparently popular among voters across the political spectrum.
Early media coverage has focused on how the plan could be a political asset for Democrats in 2020, as well as the plan’s undoubtedly high cost. Economists on both sides of the issue will tweak assumptions in theoretical models to show estimated costs and benefits to the economy that fit their pre-existing views. And they will entirely miss the point.
