Robert Shiller on direct government employment
Big new programs to create jobs need not be expensive. Suppose the cost of hiring a single employee were as high as $30,000 a year, several times typical AmeriCorps living allowances. Hiring a million people would cost $30 billion a year. That’s only 4 percent of the entire federal stimulus program, and 0.2 percent of the national debt.
There is more here. Do any of you know of a policy paper on whether any labor market deregulation (e.g., Davis-Bacon?) would be required for this to happen? Davis-Bacon did precede some of the major Roosevelt jobs programs, so I've never understood how this fits together. How was it ruled that the relatively low-paying jobs of the WPA satisfied the Davis-Bacon requirement?