I was watching a pbs program on the CCC or (Civilian Conservation Core). What it did during the 1930s was to take poor young men who were mostly 18 to 25 and a few World War I Veterans who were older and pay them $1 a day(which was better than starving then like they were before) and feed and cloth them and teach them to build things (parks, roads, trails, National Park Buildings etc.) and to house them in tents throughout the U.S. Most of them sent $25 a month back to their mothers, sisters and younger siblings so they wouldn't starve too.
I think a program like this may be necessary again. As unemployment compensation runs out there needs to be a program for young people who might not be able to get student loans or able for one reason or another to go to college right now. There is a program called Job Core but that is mostly like a government run trade school for young people. I think there should be something that combines building roads, rebuilding National Park STructures, Building Wind Farms and Solar Energy arrays, building bridges and hiways etc. for people who otherwise might starve or even turn to crime rather than to starve and die. I think in the next two years Obama needs to do this.
When FDR created this program it worked so well that FDR was re-elected President with the largest majority since George Washington. So not only does it put people to work and feed them it trains young people to work together and in the 1930s many of these young men learned trades and to read. What they learned about working all over their country made them even more patriotic and helped them become better citizens and gave many of them their start which led to many great careers over the years for them.
I think the PBS program is called The American EXperience: The Civilian Conservation Core.
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