Franklin Wayne Poley asked:
> Two questions: (1) In Switzerland do workfare recipients have as much
> choice in their workfare situations as other people have in selecting
> pre-employment, education or employment?
No, but I think this applies to all countries... Basically, they can
select the work together with their advisor, who of course will take
their individual abilities, preferences and possibilities into account.
> (2) What is the GDP contribution
> of those welfare recipients before and after workfare? (ie the volunteer
> work done before workfare may exceed the forced work done after workfare).
I would estimate their GDP contribution is below 0.1%. But as we all know,
the GDP is an inappropriate metric for these kinds of work, which are of
little economical value but of significant social and environmental value.
(Also, these activities must not compete with commercial services.) This is
a good opportunity (esp. for NGOs) to get things done that couldn't be done
with 'regular' jobs, e.g. guarded bike parkings, free bike rentals, recycling
of various stuff, restoring old buildings, cleaning up the environment, etc.
One new service that my program introduced is a free E-bicycle courier for
shoppers, so mothers and the elderly can go shopping without a car and
without carrying heavy loads.
Victor Milne calculated:
> If a workfare participant works 8
> hours each working day (22 workdays in the average month) for his welfare
> benefit of $520 a month, then he is being paid $2.95 an hour.
Over here, the 'wage' is about 2-3 times higher. Considering that the
workfare work is very easy work that can't be compared with the stressing
work in private companies, and that it basically helps the candidates to
maintain a regular activity (and possibly to find a 'real' job), I think
this wage isn't too bad...
Chris
