The impulse behind the latest “big” progressive idea of offering job guarantees is entirely valid. Studies show that those without jobs are much more likely to be dissatisfied with their lives, to become addicted to alcohol or drugs, and to be abusive within their family than even those working at low wages they find inadequate.
On this point, the US economy is falling short of its potential. The fraction of the adult population aged 25 to 54 that is working or seeking work has declined over the past 20 years. Despite the US’s vaunted labour market flexibility, the chance that a man, aged between 25 and 54 years old, is out of work is much greater than it is in France and not very different than what it is in Italy. In sharp contrast to the rest of the world, the percentage of adult women working in the US has been declining since the 1990s.
These trends are important causes of the increasingly bitter nature of US politics and of resistance to technological change and overseas trade. President Donald Trump received disproportionate support in parts of the country where joblessness increased most.