Thread by @oren_cass

1/ It's interesting to watch the confusion that The Once and Future Worker causes for conservatives accustomed to a particular set of debates. A fine example is this from @JonahNRO in his conversation with @MichaelRStrain on the @JonahRemnant podcast last week:

2/ Jonah suggests my goal is "to spend a huge pile of money"; that "what we're talking about is spending a lot of money to make lives better for workers and what not." That's not at all what I'm talking about, as I explained to him on his previous podcast.

3/ A "Keynesian sugar high" is obviously not desirable or sustainable. Where would the money come from? And once we've built the ten-lane underground super highway, what next? Keynesian spending is supposed to be countercyclical, it doesn't remedy structural problems.

4/ Jonah also suggests just earmarking money by congressional district, and mandating it go toward infrastructure, but wait a minute... why? Isn't that the technocratic steering of resources he objects to? What if the district would rather buy cheap Chinese stuff for everyone?

5/ Regardless, if this IS a permanent effort, focused on domestic employment, and we fund it... then the proposal is pretty close to a federal job guarantee. You can propose that if you want, but it's not a great foundation for a statement about the problems of big government.

6/ Of course, Jonah's careful to say he's not actually proposing this ten-lane underground national highway stimulus, but he seems genuinely curious why it's not a better idea than genuine structural reforms to strengthen the labor market. So there you go, that's why not.

7/ And FWIW, for someone dedicated to resisting "populism," Jonah spends a lot of time criticizing "dudes with propeller beanies," lamenting proposals that "no one else can understand and no one else can follow," and arguing for his own hypothetical as "much easier and sellable."

8/8 Anyway, here are some links.

To my appearance on @JonahRemnant with @JonahNRO: nationalreview.com/podcasts/the-r…

To the @MichaelRStrain episode (relevant comments around the 37 min mark): nationalreview.com/podcasts/the-r…

To the book: bit.ly/theonceandfutu…