LIBERAL PRESS: BRING BACK THE LABOR CAMPS!

You thought you'd seen it all? Sunday's Hartford Courant editorialized in favor of bringing back government work camps:

We wonder if the CCC model shouldn't have another life. In 1933, when it began, there were many unemployed young men in urban areas, and the country needed to work on parks and roads. What a coincidence. Today we have many unemployed young people in urban areas, and many of the country's bridges and roads are in dire need of repair. Would a CCC-style program that puts young people to work fixing them, that teaches the value, discipline and satisfaction of work, be out of the question?

Established by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1933, at its peak, the Civilian Conservation Corps employed 500,000 men in 2500 labor camps. The program was administered by the Army, and specifically excluded any useful job training. The CCC workers received $30 a month, of which $25 was sent to their families. There was a separate work camp program for American Indians.

The Hartford Courant's comments are just plain stupid. Have you ever seen bridges or roadways under repair? There is no way that untrained "young people" would be able to do that work.

What's more:

Although at first intended to help youth escape the cities, city boys were reluctant to join, and most enrollees came from small towns and rural areas.

If you think today's urban unemployed would be eager to live in wooden barracks in remote rural areas, I think you have another think coming.

This is just another example of the left's penchant for the militarization of the entire economy and their wistful nostalgia for the good old days of government run labor camps around the world.