A blueprint for a better America begins with a massive well-paid public-jobs program for three and one-half million Americans. It describes how it will be paid for and the benefits derived from it for the American people.

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A Blueprint for a Better America   By Bill Honer

The Chicago Political Economy Group, Joe Persky et al, has proposed an $18-an-hour wage that would entail a permanent public-jobs program for three and one-half million Americans. The group asserts that the private sector in America has failed to provide sufficient jobs and a living wage for tens of millions of Americans. The program, with a price tag of over $800 billion annually, would involve a major redistribution of wealth towards lower-income Americans and would be paid for by significant tax increases on financial services and carbon-emission production, a reduction in military spending,  and, if necessary, an increase in the money supply for public purposes. The failure of neo-liberal economic policies has been a disaster for the majority of the American people. It began in earnest with the policies of the Reagan administration; the disparity of wealth has grown with each succeeding president, Democrats included. 

The jobs would be in the areas of public infrastructure, including such as transportation, educational, and healthcare facilities, and parks, social services, and green industries. This article cannot do justice to the scope of their plan; a visit to their web site is highly recommended. However, what I can do here is present evidence of my experience with the benefits of a public-jobs program.  

I served as a government analyst for Sacramento County, California, during the 1970s, assisting in the implementation of a large-scale public-employment program for thousands of unemployed persons funded by the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA). The program was a success, with 63% entering unsubsidized employment within 30 days of program termination for 500 program participants surveyed.

The jobs in which they were placed were not, as conservatives like to say, "make-work" jobs. They worked as social service aides, entry-level clerks in school districts and government offices, government analysts, account clerks, health-education aides, teacher's aides, landscape and maintenance workers, and other useful jobs in agencies and departments that were under-funded and understaffed. The addition of public-service employees significantly enhanced services to the public. At the same time, work is not only an economic necessity. it is also a psychological one that provides meaning to life for many people. In effect, access to employment is a human right.

The public-employment program reached the hard-to-employ, including the long-term unemployed. How did the program work?  Unemployed persons were registered by Sacramento County Personnel Department staff and a Special Employment Unit was established.  Program participants were placed in county and state agencies, school and park districts, and nonprofit agencies that provided health, education, and social services to the community. Participating agencies were not permitted to reduce their current workforce and supplant them with program participants. This was enforced through a   "maintenance of effort" provision in contracts signed by participating employers in government and the nonprofit sector.

As an incentive for participating agencies to transition participants from subsidized to unsubsidized employment, agencies with good records of hiring public participants were rewarded with additional program participants. Workers were paid an annual salary of $10,000 to $12,000. Thirty years ago, it was possible to live a middle-class lifestyle with that income; the amount paid is sadly close to the current minimum wage.

The program reached the hard to employ. On two Friday evenings each month, I traveled to San Quentin Prison and met with inmates due to be paroled to the Sacramento area. Of the 10 inmates who participated, only two returned to prison during the following two years. A review of 500 program participants found that 315, or 63%, were employed in unsubsidized positions within 30 days of termination from the program. On his first day in office, Reagan terminated the employment of 585,000 Americans under the program.  

There were some remarkable success stories.  Leonard K., a 45-year-old American Indian, entered the program in 1975 following his release from prison after serving a 16-year sentence for a double homicide. I talked with him recently; he is now 78 years old, and has never returned to prison. He credits the jobs program and my work with him as the major reason he did not return to crime.

Another success story was that of Albert H. a participant who, incredibly, went on to become director of Region IX of the United States Department of Labor, the very agency that provided oversight to the public-employment program in Sacramento! Work for most people is an economic and psychological necessity. Thousands found a sense of productivity and personal dignity through the program. The salaries they received generated money within the economy.

The program requires effective monitoring by federal and local governments, with emphasis on transitioning participants to unsubsidized employment where feasible.   Sacramento County operated a professional and ethical program. Some officials in Philadelphia and Chicago were indicted for criminal violations and sent to prison for their administration of the public-jobs program.   

President Obama has discussed the need for 21^st-century solutions to current problems; if he has solutions, he is doing an excellent job of hiding them from public view. However, human needs have not changed from the prior century. People still need to feel a sense of self-worth and dignity that employment can bring to their lives. The infra-structure to operate a public-employment program is largely in place. City and county personnel departments, along with nonprofit agencies throughout the nation, are in a position to implement the program. They would greatly benefit from a five-percent administrative fee. All that remains is the political will to move our nation forward and put our people back to work with a decent quality of life.

Bill Honer is a former Sacramento County Senior Analyst and now serves as an international consultant to nonprofit organizations. He is co-author of "The California State Department of Education Five-year Plan for Adult Education" His writings have been published in the United States, Spain, and Costa Rica.

Authors Bio:
Bill Honer has served as a Consultant to the California State Department of Education and the Office of the Hawaii Attorney General, along with non-profit agencies in Hawaii, California, and Costa Rica. In addition to writing comprehensive business plans, he has written more than eighty successful grant proposals that have generated more than ten million dollars in revenues for non-profit and government agencies in California and Hawaii. In addition, he has written more than 35 million dollars in successful grants to standards applications for local government in California. .

He served as chair of the Coalition of Homeless Education providers, and has addressed California legislative committees on the subject. Mr. Honer is also author of a report on the status of Latinos in California that was sponsored by the Van Loben Sels Foundation. Dan Corsello, the current Executive Director of the Foundation, praised the quality of the report.

His credentials in the field of criminal justice include researcher for the New York State Joint Legislative Committee on Crime, where he investigated judicial corruption by New York's Mafia families. He was a researcher for a crime victimization project at the Einstein Center for the Study of Social Intervention at Yeshiva University. He also served as an Assistant to the Dean of Humanities at The State University of New York at the Clinton Prison Diagnostic Treatment Center at Dannemora, New York. As a Senior Analyst for Sacramento County, California, he worked with American Indian inmates inside San Quentin Prison. He used the principles learned at Dannemora to implement the highly successful Hawaii Human Development Transitional housing program for crystal meth-amphetamine addicts in Honolulu, Hawaii. In 2001, the program was the subject of a favorable article in the Honolulu Advertiser. He was also retained by the office of the Hawaii Attorney General to conduct a study on the non-seriously mentally ill
and the criminal justice system in Hawaii.

In the course of implementing many employment, education, social service and health education programs, Mr. Honer has worked with a wide range of minority populations, including Native Americans, Latino migrant farm workers, African-Americans in Harlem and Bedford Stuyvesant in New York City, victims of domestic violence, the homeless ,prisoners andex-offenders and many others In 1990, he founded and co-chaired The Coalition for Equity for Minorities, a public policy group committed to social justice that monitored police shootings of unarmed suspects and excessive force allegations. He also produced and coordinated tobacco prevention and cessation ads and television programs targeting the Filipino community.

Bill graduated from a private all-scholarship prep school in New York City. After securing a B.A. in Sociology, graduating Cum Laude, he pursued M.A. studies at the City University of New York, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, where he specialized in organizational theory and design. He was subsequently admitted to a Ph. D program in Criminal Justice at the State University of New York, but instead moved to the Spanish island of Mallorca and later to California. He has also served as Instructor of Grant Writing at Windward Community College in Hawaii.

His articles on social and political conditions have been published in the United States, Costa Rica and Spain. He is tri-lingual (English, French and Spanish). Bill brings a cross-cultural perspective to his writing as a result of his travels to more than 50 countries around the world. He lives with his wife in Costa Rica.

Major Publications

Author: "The Moon Landing and the Mob " (A Novel Available on Amazon Kindle). (2012)

Author: "Mentally Ill Offenders In Hawaii: Strategies for Reducing Recidivism" Report to the Hawaii Office of the Attorney General (2003). Retained under contract, he conducted sociological research and interviewed officials of the Hawaii criminal justice system concerning the high incidence of mentally ill offenders.

Author: "Report on the Status of Residents of the North and South Kohala Districts of Hawaii County".(2003). Demographic and strategic planning analysis prepared on behalf of the Hamakua Health Clinic.

Editor and co-author: "Adult Education for the Homeless: from the Streets to Self-Sufficiency", Miller Freeman Inc. (San Francisco) 1999. This work presents innovative strategies for helping homeless persons develop basic skills.

Co-author: "California State Plan for Adult Education and Family Literacy-July 1, 1999-June 30th, 2004", November. 1998. Provided a social framework for addressing the status of adults with basic skills needs as a paid consultant to the California State Department of Education.

Other Activities:

Research: Conducted research investigation of judicial corruption by New York City 's five Mafia families for the New York State Joint Legislative Committee on Crime. The research resulted in the removal/resignation of two Supreme Court Judges, including the Chief Administrative Judge of the New York County Supreme Court.

Research: Performed research activities on crime victimization under a grant through the Einstein Center for the Study of Social Intervention in New York City at Yeshiva University. .

Television Producer and Host: During the period from 1994 to 2001, Mr. Honer was host and producer of Social Issues, a public affairs cable television program that was cablecast monthly in Sacramento and San Francisco. He has served as Producer/Host of more than 100 cable television programs, including "Bagong-Bukas", "The Sandigan Review", and "Social Issues". One series program received first prize in the 1989 Sacramento Community Cable Television Awards Competition for ethnic expression. The programs have aired on television stations in Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco Bay Area, and Sacramento. "Social Issues" aired monthly in Sacramento and San Francisco.