But from a stimulus perspective, I can see no advantage to not just create regular (but temporary) jobs performing the same functions at regular wages rather than unemployment benefits.

Formalising volunteer work creates a new kind of work that's "important enough to pay for, but not important enough to pay decently for." I see no advantage in doing so, and a very real risk of creating an underclass' underclass of "volunteer" workers which are only volunteers in the most nominal sense of the term.

And that's leaving aside a much longer discussion of the role and nature of volunteer work in general (which is frighteningly often to use charity to patch up deficient state services).

- Jake

If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.