cover image Let's Put America Back to Work

Let's Put America Back to Work

Paul Simon. Bonus Books, $14.95 (216pp) ISBN 978-0-933893-18-4

U.S. Sen. Simon (D-Ill.) calls for more resources in the private sector and for a federally guaranteed job opportunities program in outlining his political agenda should he become a presidential candidate. Claiming that the continued high unemployment rate is slowly eroding our economic future, he illustrates through actual cases the high costin taxes and human livesof crime, family dysfunction, illness and joblessness. He advocates tougher trade practices, deficit reductions through higher taxation, a lower rate of growth in defense spending and an emphasis on productivity and research rather than merger. His WPA-like Guaranteed Job Opportunity Program would be implemented by state-appointed district councils to fight illiteracy and retrain displaced workers, as well as create jobs. Such a program, he argues, would not only prove cost effective, but prevent a political confrontation between the very wealthy and the poor. (December 2