Apologies for missing a day of blogging, but I’ve been hard at work trying to figure out how my idea for a New Deal of the Mind might work in practice. There seems to be some momentum growing around the concept of harnessing this country’s celebrated talent for creativity and innovation during the downturn. We are at severe risk of losing a generation of intellectual capital if we don’t turn our attention to deciding what the army of unemployed will do during the recession. They can’t be allowed just to sit it out.
Like everyone else it seems, I have been reading up on Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal of the 1930s. I can recommend Anthony J. Badger’s The New Deal: The Depression Years 1933-1940, which contains a brilliant chapter on welfare. Although Badger is a liberal, he is a sceptical voice, who recognises the scheme had massive failings.
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