Quote Originally Posted by Thorne View Post
From the OP I got the impression that the prisoners were doing jobs which had formerly been done by county employees, doing county maintenance, not by workers in a private company. Granted, some county workers will probably lose their jobs, but that's almost a foregone conclusion anyway, with governments at every level having to cut back due to falling revenues. At least this way the necessary maintenance gets done.
To me the point is that regular jobs disappear. I also wonder how voluntary it really is.
In DK someone got the brilliant idea to make people work for their unemployment money - in real jobs. The result was of course that the number of real jobs went down drastically, and people got locked in unemployment, working for very little money.
This sounds like something of the same rather too 'smart' thinking - get them for nothing, and real work vanishes. If it is a real job, pay real money for it. That is our system - we cannot just go out and gather and hunt for a living!

I've worked in jobs which required union membership, and I've worked in jobs without unions. I much prefer the latter. In my experience, the only people the union leadership was interested in protecting were those who didn't want to actually do any work. Those of us who did our fair share, and then some, were threatened by the union for doing too much! While I realize that the unions have, or did have, their uses, making it mandatory to join in order to work is just plain wrong! If they want members they should be forced to compete, just like any other business.
Agreed.
But jobs should be kept with a real wage, not this sham.