Onion WPA Joke Would Be Funnier if Krugman Wasn’t so Serious

Conn Carroll / January 10, 2011

In an op-ed from last week, Paul Krugman again called for greater government control of the economy to combat unemployment writing: “A rational political system would long since have created a 21st-century version of the Works Progress Administration — we’d be putting the unemployed to work doing what needs to be done, repairing and improving our fraying infrastructure.” Well The Onion has some good news for Mr. Krugman, under the header Revamped WPA To Create 50,000 New Jobs By Disassembling, Reassembling Hoover Dam, they report:

In an effort to boost the economy and promote job growth, representatives from the newly revived Works Progress Administration announced Thursday their plan to dismantle, piece by piece, the 3.25 million cubic yards of concrete forming the Hoover Dam, and then immediately rebuild it. “This is a vital initiative,” said WPA director Ted Doogan, who was appointed last week. “Systematically tearing down such a massive edifice will create at least 25,000 jobs over the next five years. (more…)