While a job might not produce anything of value to a customer, I think it is often forgotten that a job also has the dual purpose of skills training.

People doing "useless" jobs might acquire the skills to do other and more useful jobs in the future. Keeping people unemployed has a high cost in the form of loss of skills over time, mental health etc.

If you don't keep things going you might risk losing some people forever as their skills become so obsolete and their motivation and work capacity destroyed.

Companies will usually not higher long term unemployed so that is why many people can get permanently lost to the labour market.

> you might risk losing some people forever as their skills become so obsolete

This is likely why I'll likely never be able convince myself to take a break from programming until retirement.

Unless, of course, today's chatbots evolve to write code better than we do. Or at least cheaper.

Of course age discrimination will likely have you changing careers well before retirement.

The infrastructure in this country is in an absolutely dilapidated state. Roads are potholed, bridges are collapsing, water and sewage pipes date back to the Civil War, Internet connectivity is expensive and slow. There's more than enough work to keep a whole lot of people busy for a generation, if we're willing to pay for it.

If its true that such jobs would reduce unemployment substantially, then a number of potential workers might already be recipients of other government programs, meaning the marginal cost is not nearly as much as the salary.

Implementing such a program in that way though requires a fair amount of attention. If it ends up not reducing unemployment, that means it is diverting workers from other industries, which doesn't necessarily mean it is a bad program, but it's a different kind of thing.

When they're done they start all over again. Unless you've invented some magical material that never needs replacing it will have broken down by the time they finish. It's not like we have so many unemployed people that we're going to replace/upgrade every piece of infrastructure that needs it in a year.

After getting prosperity for a generation by building strong infrastructure, I think we can safely turn this task over to the next generation.

Who knows.

More jobs, more wages, more actual money in the economy to displace credit cards and pay down household debt, and improved infrastructure may well see new business opportunities come into existence.

What makes you think they will ever be done?

It's a big country! When you get towards completing a single project, I bet there will always be something else that needs doing.

Like an airport in a town of 2,000 that nobody uses, but ensure the Congressman will get reelected?

I could only imagine the abuse with a gov't directed jobs program!

And things like that don't happen in the private sector?

Corruption is a human problem, not a government or corporate problem.

If a company builds something useless, it's not my money, so I don't care. Gov't projects spend tax money, so I care.

I would much rather have another airport built than another prison.

I would much rather have an affordable public transit system built than another airport.