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Against Despair: Is it time for a 21st-century reinvention of the WPA?

By Gritsforbreakfast

If you've traveled extensively around Texas, you've noticed that many of the nicest spots in the state have been adorned with beautiful buildings, stone fences and walkways built in the 1930s by laborers employed by Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration (WPA). Perhaps my favorite is the gorgeous Botanical Garden in Fort Worth (pictured -a must visit whenever you're in Cow Town), but examples abound in every corner of the state, and I'm sure many other states.Given the nation's economic woes and the difficulties for millions of felons to find employment, recently I've been thinking this program needs to be reinvented for the 21st Century, not just because it would boost the economy but because it would reduce crime.I could be wrong, but if it was limited, targeted, and short-term, with a job placement component to send workers to the private sector, I doubt the idea would be nearly as controversial with the general public as it would have been during the Cold War era, when every debate on such matters inevitably centered around whether it smacked of "socialism...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on March 02, 2008 (boomark / email).