If it didn’t work here, maybe it will work in Iraq

  • Share
  • Read Later

In today’s WSJ, , Rudy and Newt are urging “workfare” for Iraq:

The administration should direct a small percent of that amount to create an Iraqi Citizen Job Corps, along the lines of FDR’s Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression.

Isn’t that exactly the kind of program Republicans spent decades trying to shut down in this country? Here’s what Newt had to say about Job Corps in 1993:

Robert Reich wants job training, lots of job training. Now, the most powerful job-training program in the world, that introduces more entry-level workers to the habits of work than any other system, is called McDonald’s. It employs a million people worldwide, and if you were to find the number of CEOs of small companies who had their first job when they went to work for McDonald’s, you would be astonished at the impact it has had.

One of the least productive training programs in America is called the Job Corps. A recent study indicates that if two people are standing nearby and one goes into the Job Corps and the other doesn’t, the one who didn’t is likely to have the higher average lifetime income.

Maybe the answer for Iraq is more McDonald’s.