In America
Wisconsin
I believe that Wisconsin's welfare to work provided the inspiration for New Deal and similar schemes around the world such as Australia's "Work for the dole". I'd be interested to know if these other schemes work better than New Deal. I find it difficult to believe that they are any worse.
Washington Post article
I see from an article in the Washington Post, Highly skilled and out of work, published in January 2008 before the full magnitude of the 2008 banking crisis became apparent, that unemployment is hitting white-collar staff in the United States too. It's not just a British problem.
President Obama
Well, the United States elected President Barack Obama who, if you believed the hype at the time, was destined to solve all the world's problems. The mid-term elections two years later indicated that he hadn't lived up to the hype, although there's time yet. His selection of Hillary Clinton as secretary of state did not fill me with confidence and some of her utterances in that role have not been helpful. Even if Barack Obama does eventually solve all the world's problems, I doubt that it will change my personal situation.
President Bush
Meanwhile, his predecessor George W Bush needn't worry about redundancy. He'll get plenty of job offers. I particularly liked the news about the hardware store job offer that he declined. I think he should have accepted it as an example to everybody. Unemployed people and (even more important) employers would see that it is possible for somebody previously in a well-paid job to work for a modest wage rather than not work at all. While unemployed people often apply for jobs of a lower status than the ones they used to have, employers are generally unwilling to consider them for such jobs, as I explain later when I ask if unemployed people are Too fussy?. I know that the hardware store job offer was a stunt, but if George W Bush had accepted the offer, it might have been the start of a process leading to changes in Employer attitudes.
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