The way the CCC worked is that a young unmarried man would be sent to live and work on a remote camp under military discipline. Food & shelter were provided by the CCC and $25/month would be sent home to the young man's family as an alternative to welfare. He would get $5.
Matthew Yglesias
 @mattyglesias
Mar 31
Replying to @talmonsmith
I was reading about how the actual Civilian Conservation Corps worked last month and thinking about how absolutely everyone left & right would hate it.

Mar 31, 2024 · 4:52 PM UTC

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Replying to @mattyglesias
A wacky thing about it that participants seem to have roighly lived a year longer on average. economics.yale.edu/sites/def…
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Also boosted WWII enlistment according to that paper, which apparently was quietly one of the goals of the program — laying the groundwork for military expansion at a time when congress didn't want to do it.
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Replying to @mattyglesias
If they’re unmarried then what families does the money go to? Their parents?
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Yeah parents
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Replying to @mattyglesias
Not an expert in this area but my loose understanding of the post-WW2 center left in NA & Europe is that middle class and upwardly mobile working class voters weren’t interested in this kind of thing vs, say, household appliances and other consumer goods
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The other thing is from 1948-1973, the US was conscripting young men into the military.
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Replying to @mattyglesias
Was it different in big cities? Robert Moses famously rebuilt the NYC park system with CCC labor. Were those guys living in barracks somewhere? Seems like it would have been easier for them to just go home every night.
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That was WPA money, different program
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Replying to @mattyglesias
Huntsville, TX
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Replying to @mattyglesias
Oh ya, EVERYONE would attack it
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