//The reality of "work for the dole" is, some populists politicians see an advantage of appearing to be hard on the unemployed//

Populist politicians also like to be seen to be tough on crime, so here's a practical solution: make the unemployed police. Most categories of crime have been decreasing steadily for years so they might not actually have much to do, but clearly that doesn't matter because law-and-order politicians are always promising us more police despite falling crime rates. The new police can be employed the same way as other unnecessary police: fining people over minor traffic infringements and serving as glorified conductors on public transport. That way they'll be generating some revenue.

Toni, not such a silly idea. The Romans had a similar scheme, I'm very up on the Romans of late. When the Romans defeated an enemy army, and they did that quite often, rather than crucifying all the defeated fellas, they would invite them to joint their Roman army as mercenaries enforcing Roman law. The Romans were very big on law and order in those days. In that way you could say the new unemployed, were now working in law enforcement, a work for the dole scheme no less!
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Maybe the government could start employing some 50 to 60year olds in government offices.
Lets face it private enterprise wants fit young adults.
The goverment could employ two people over 50years of age for every one job.
Job sharing.
The way technology is advancing with robots etc. A lot of people will be out of work
in the future. Better not shoot themselves in the foot with draconian centrelink requirements.

Most of these work for the dole schemes are Mickey Mouse schemes.
Instead of bringing in skilled labour, maybe the profit making end of town could put out some money
to train our own unemployed to become skilled workers.

Cherful: maybe the profit making end of town could put out some money
to train our own unemployed to become skilled workers.

I agree Cherful, but they will put profits before anything & say it's the Governments job. It never used to be so.

A problem with the unemployed is the SG Standard as opposed to IQ. SG stands for Specific Grouping. SG1, + or - is for people who can be trained to do anything & be really good at anything they train for. SG2, + or - Can be trained to doe any task & retain that Skill. SG3 is your average person, Can be trained to do specific low level jobs adequately. SG4, F'n hopeless. Unfortunately with the head bangers, Druggies etc., there are around nowadays there seems to be an ever increasing number of SG4's & even lower down the scale.

What can you do with the SG4 + or - group? They are the totally dependent Group unfortunately.

My Army Records show me as IQ 129, SG2+. Low Clerical ability. Later assessments show an improvement to IQ 132/4 & I took pains to increase my Clerical Skills. I guess, that's why, in 50 odd years I was never out of work & I had good, satisfying jobs, even if I had to start at the bottom & work up.

Now Cheerful the Romans had a solution for the over 50's unemployed, those they didn't crucify that is, the Romans were very big on crucifixion, I would go as far as saying it was a national pastime. The Romans turned the over 50's unemployed into roving tax collectors, mainly due to their high IQ's but low MS, that's military skills. These roving tax collectors simply traveled around the empire taxing at will, always remembering that old Roman adage "Give unto Caesar what is Caesar's, and the rest is yours". Tax collecting then, as it is today, was not a popular occupation, today that is demonstrated by the high number of tax avoiders, then it was demonstrated by the high number of tax collectors stoned to death, an occupational hazard, although the Romans did have a very good Funeral Plan for Tax Collectors, they fed them to the lions.
You could say the Romans tax collecting system was a kind of self funding work for the dole scheme.

CHERFUL, I agree with everything you say however I'll bet private enterprise will not part with money to help work for the dole schemes. The owner and/or shareholders will want to pocket the profits of course, first and foremost. After all, they are not running job creation schemes in anyone's books. Well, that's anyone's books that are based in actual reality.

I'll own up to participating in these WFD schemes because I'm over 50 and no one considers us "oldies" anymore, too much of a liability in some industries and occupations it seems.

The thing that's going to be shaping a lot of these schemes in coming years and I don't think any of the mainstream pollies will dispose of these WFD schemes because the pain of NOT being PC is too much to bear. "They" reason that the WFD schemes are good because they help to demonstrate to prospective employers that you are prepared to go and "volunteer" for work... thus, keeping your workplace skills and participation in the outside working world. But I"m sure a lot of employers if not all of them know you HAD to go and do it or your Newstart benefit gets chopped.

The thing that will really astound us all is the pace of advancement in robotics and AI invading low AND middle level jobs in coming years.

I heard very recently that the big Foxconn factory in Taiwan had to chop some 30,000 employees because robotics and AI can do their jobs more efficiently. What or who is next to instigate large job losses because of technology... I fear this is only the beginning.

Which brings us to the proposition of how are people going to get money to live on? BIG PROBLEM. The economy will suffer because of lack of consumption.. Perhaps the recent proposal in Switzerland for a "living wage" will shed light on this.. the fact that they even considered have a vote on it is most enlightening.