It maybe believed that you will save on the energy and resource crises by increasing unemployment but people on the basic benefits want a little extra money and it's not wise to leave so many doing nothing considering they will be more needed during a growth period.
Coinncidently human input is a big area for generation of datasets. Such data interfacing and input could be done in biking distance and even the government could benefit from such data sets. Along with other measures this work force could be kept prepared and earn their extra money. I'm not talking free lunch just a worth while trade of subsidies and effort. It would also encourage more human driven data which could be a good thing.