Mandatory education is oftentimes called compulsory education; it is a policy by which governments require all children to undergo some level of education which varies from country to country. Apparently this is not new, but has been exclusive to the elite, religious, political, military organizations and family. Recently nearly all countries around the world made education not only a right, but put in place infrastructure to support it. My question is: can the same thing be done as far as employment is concerned as well?
When one is talking about employment, it is important to point out that many factors get involved in both the employability of the individual, the availability of that employment, the economy, etc. For something like that to happen, there is no shying away to jump to the conclusion that the governments and states are the only ones that can make it happen.
Such a massive undertaking will require rigorous planning, implementation, monitoring top down, and that is already a red flag, for those who subscribe to the idea that the economy is some kind of random magic process and any large scale planning would give states too much power. That is true and false at the same time, it is true that yes, that would transform states into massive commercial operators and false because when one unwraps history, very little has been done in the past when governments were not involved.
A lot of industries have been springboarded by governments in some shape or form. When the government was not directly involved in private public partnership, the government provided assurance and sovereign guarantee to creditors, or partially provided support financially or otherwise. We are talking about major African industries, such as tea, coffee, mining, brewing, warehousing, etc.
Rightly so what happened was that eventually, most industries were outcompeted and run efficiently, sometimes due to the sole fact that they were somehow overseen by governments with more responsibilities, or in some other instances with the issue of not prioritizing maximizing profits to shareholders and creditors. For instance, if in normal operations, most work was manual, and employed many local staffs, a decision to automate and replace one hundred people with a machine that is even at times more expensive, but convenient, may not only involve finances considerations but also how it will affect the community. When a company is run by a private firm, it is easy to just flip the switch and rant about saving money, regardless of the number of people affected.
The end of the majority of parastatals is well known to anyone who has any interest in the world economy. When the world bank, IMF and Western agenda forced governments to exit companies to optimize their management, most of these companies transitioned from public to private hands. The overall impact of mondialization as the policy was dubbed is a discussion for another day. The question is whether a return to government actively taking a more active role can lead to the creation of industries and more employment opportunities for citizens.
One can argue that in some capacities governments are already taking an active role through subcontracting infrastructure and services. This, however controversial, is not enough. There are those who believe that government doesn’t create any job, that the only role for the government is to set up the environment; they are those who believe that the government should be responsible for everything including setting up industry; in my view it all depends. There is nothing wrong with the government actually doing both. After all, some industry cannot exist without effective coordination, planning and big financial risk undertaking that can only be done by the governments.
I think people even in the west will be surprised to realize how much the economy is tied in one way or the other to the governments, both directly or indirectly. For countries like the United States of America, military spending accounts for a major section of the economy that permeates through nearly every single sector. In many cases that influx is strategically distributed across the country to provide financial influx anchors for other businesses. Another good example is what is called college towns, these are towns that for the most case have been strategically located by states or well versed community leaders to provide lifeblood for the geographical area.
The major queries now become can the economy be planned for? Can states put in place structure to make sure there is a consistent flow of liquidity throughout its citizenry? Will that be legal, ethical and appropriate? Can that lead to the possibility of being able to employ every individual like it was achieved in the educational sector with mandatory planned for basic education.
While I don’t have answers to those questions, one thing I know for sure is that it is already being done by Western countries under disguise and it is for the most part the only way to achieve meaningful economic progress, it is hence up to states and government to research, evaluate and decide. Current metrics that don’t reflect the true image of individual economies such as GDP are part of the problem, One thing I know for sure is that will only happen though with the right statistics with metrics that matter that complement already existing metrics.
