Unemployment Jobs

The blogger Simon Johnson railed against House Republicans proposing to "drastically" cut unemployment benefits.  Take one glance at the U-6 unemployment rate and I think you will agree with him that this is a very "mean-spirited" thing to do in this jobs environment.   Removing the social safety net does not put people back to work, it puts them in bread lines.  For the most part, these people are not unemployed because they are lazy but rather because they can't find jobs that match their skills.

Now that said, I think there are better kinds of social assistance that are less likely to create a permanent welfare state as seen in many EU countries.  Instead of Unemployment Insurance that you can collect on just by *not working*, I would support Unemployment Jobs, a modern Civilian Conservation Corps offering work at a low fixed hourly wage that still pays better than unemployment benefits.  These jobs could become the elastic waistband of our economy - expanding when the private sector cuts back and falling off as people find better private sector jobs.  The program would complement unemployment benefits which would be lowered so the job of collecting benefits would never compete with these interim government jobs.  

Of course, the devil is in the details, you have to somehow design it to not distort markets.  The wage has to be high enough to attract the unemployed but not high enough to pull people away from real private sector work.  You couldn't employ illegal aliens.  Competency, effort, attitude and behavior would need to be tracked to ensure accountability.  Finally, most importantly, the right people would have to be paired up with the right work - 50yr old chain-smoking construction worker should be out fixing a bridge not substitute teaching elementary school kids. 

Anyway, just a thought on the jobs crisis.  

Big Island

Some pictures of us on the Big Island. We only had two days there but we did a bunch of stuff. We took a helicopter tour of the volcanoes, visited Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park and drove to the top of Mauna Kea. I hope to get back to the Big Island and check out Kona and maybe hike out to actual flowing lava.

Honolulu Eats

We ate really well on our trip to Hawaii in January. This was almost entirely due to the influence of our two foodie local friends @Ben Trevino and @Martha Cheng. Here is the list of the delicious spots you should try if you are in HI along with some pictures of us eating at a few of them.

Alan Wong's
Azure in the Royal Hawaiian
Leonard's Bakery for malasadas
Loco Moco (anywhere)
Acai Bowl from Bogart's Cafe in Diamondhead
Poke from Ono Seafood
Saturday Farmers Market in Kapi'olani
Home Bar & Grill
V Lounge for pizza
Ginza Bairin for Tonkatsu sandwiches
All-you-can-eat-Sushi at Hakone in the Hawaii Prince Hotel
24 hour all-you-can-eat-Korean BBQ at Sikdorak
Fish tacos from Serg's in Waimanalo
Ramen Nakamura
Banana bread (and anything else) from Kahuku Farms
Haupia Cream Pie from Ted's Bakery in Pupukea
Kiawe Kitchen in Volcano (Big Island)
Teri Beef Loco at Blaine's in Hilo