A Progressive Perspective on Employment

Employment is the Progressive Party’s core strategy for distributing wealth to individuals and ensuring that they are able to purchase the necessary goods and services for their basic needs and development. Except for those with special needs and unable to work, all able-bodied adults should have access to jobs with decent wages.

The Party views welfare economies, which rely on public supports and/or private charity to provide their working population with basic needs, as basically defective. Through proper economic planning and equitable pay scales, adequate employment opportunities can be generated. The former may require the creation of labour-intensive enterprises in the initial stages, as well as the reduction of working hours later on as the pace of automation increases. The latter will be ensured through the Party’s proposed system of cooperatives which will be responsible for much of the production in the economy. The collective ownership structure of cooperatives ensures a commitment to the equitable distribution of wages and profits, resulting in improved living standards for its workers.

Additionally, economic regions that plan for 100% employment must target job creation for local residents who spend most of their wages and profits locally. Non-local populations tend to extract the wealth they accumulate from the local economy, thereby weakening the region’s ability to grow and create jobs.