For all those reasons, in all the proposals, the idea is to go big. “I think fundamentally we’re trying to rethink the social contract in the United States,” said Neera Tanden, the president of CAP. “Our social contract is basically constructed for the New Deal era. The New Deal is really a function of the transformation of the economy from the agricultural age to the industrial age. And the economy has fundamentally transformed again, in the age of information and the age of globalization. But we have not changed the social contract fundamentally, yet.”

It also reflects a sense that Democrats need to be radical, a function of the political climate as much as it is of the economic climate. “The loop we’ve been in, which has been a trap, is that we propose ideas that can get bipartisan muster, and then we get argued to nil,” Tanden said. “I’m a deep believer that progressives need to offer their true ideas of what we need to do in the country on a whole list of issues and then work to build a politics that can make that happen.”

Still, none of these early Democratic efforts come close to figuring out how to provide a job to every American—instead hand-waving about where the jobs would come from, instructing states and cities to do the technocratic heavy lifting, and gesturing to the economic benefits. “It seems to me that these proposals as a general point are enthusiastic about how this might work,” said LaDonna Pavetti of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. “But are perhaps underestimating how much work and how many services would have to scale up to provide those kinds of jobs.”

Consider, for instance, the simple question of what kind of jobs should be on offer. Kelton and Hamilton, along with their co-authors, have pushed for direct public employment, rather than providing wage-subsidized private jobs. “You don’t want this to be workfare,” Hamilton told me. “You want to create a true alternative.” His proposal suggests that such jobs could involve “the repair, maintenance, and expansion of the nation’s infrastructure, housing stock, and public buildings; energy-efficiency upgrades to public and private buildings; assistance with ecological restoration and services to reduce the country’s carbon footprint; engagement in community-development projects; provision of high-quality preschool and after-school services; provision of teachers’ aids; provision of high-quality elder care and companionship; rejuvenation of the nation’s defunded postal service; support for the arts; and other activities that shall support the public good.”

But does the supply of work the country needs done match the supply of workers available to do it? Those are mainly skilled, middle-class jobs—often ones that require months or even years of specialized training. Constructing a building means hiring crane operators and electricians. Adding workers to preschools means certifying individuals in early-childhood education. Care jobs are a permanent need, and would not scale up easily during a recession. Construction jobs might not be well-suited for an out-of-work population struggling with significant barriers to employment, such as addiction and mental-health issues.