On Tue, Feb 21, 2012 at 8:26 AM, Suresh Ramasubramanian <sur...@hserus.net> wrote: > A labor guarantee what else. More people can be put to work for longer, > however inefficiently. Use machinery and less people do the job in less time > > Like the old chola kings digging canals to provide employment for their > subjects > >
in a way it may encourage mechanization elsewhere- if you are a private company in the agro sector, you will have a shortage of workers now due to some part of the labor force opting to join the NREGA work-force, so the private company now has to opt for more mechanization to compensate for the labor shortage. yeah, it does sound stupid. the government wants to employ a large number of people to do less efficient work. overall, it probably doesnt increase overall employment in the rural sector, since fewer people end up working for non government employers. the only benefit perhaps then is the increase in the minimum wage ...but you dont need to do this to increase minimum wage...
