Today’s figures (pdf) show that there are 2.38 million unemployed. This, though, is only part of the story. The figures also show that there are 927,000 part-time workers who’d like a full-time job (table 3) and 2.1 million economically inactive people (students, the ill, discouraged workers, home-makers, table 12) who’d like a job.
If we add these together, there are 5.4 million frustrated workers - those who’d like to work more than they are actually doing. This is equivalent to 17.3% - more than one-in-six - of the labour force*.
What’s striking here is that this measure has always been high. Even at the height of the boom, there were almost 4 million frustrated workers - equivalent to 13.5% of the workforce.
This suggests that Marxists are correct. Capitalism, at least in its actually existing form, is incapable of providing full employment.
In this context, Don Paskini is surely right. Trying to cajole the long-term sick into work by cutting their benefits is fatuous, as there’s little work to be had. Such a policy is much like Edward III’s Statute of Labourers - an act of class warfare lacking any decent economic logic.
Our biggest economic problem is a lack of jobs for those who want them, not the fact that some people don’t want to work.
* I say “equivalent” because the economically inactive are not counted as part of the workforce.
If we add these together, there are 5.4 million frustrated workers - those who’d like to work more than they are actually doing. This is equivalent to 17.3% - more than one-in-six - of the labour force*.
What’s striking here is that this measure has always been high. Even at the height of the boom, there were almost 4 million frustrated workers - equivalent to 13.5% of the workforce.
This suggests that Marxists are correct. Capitalism, at least in its actually existing form, is incapable of providing full employment.
In this context, Don Paskini is surely right. Trying to cajole the long-term sick into work by cutting their benefits is fatuous, as there’s little work to be had. Such a policy is much like Edward III’s Statute of Labourers - an act of class warfare lacking any decent economic logic.
Our biggest economic problem is a lack of jobs for those who want them, not the fact that some people don’t want to work.
* I say “equivalent” because the economically inactive are not counted as part of the workforce.
An Alternative to Capitalism (which we need here in the USA)
Several decades ago, Margaret Thatcher claimed: "There is no alternative". She was referring to capitalism. Today, this negative attitude still persists.
I would like to offer an alternative to capitalism for the American people to consider. Please click on the following link. It will take you to an essay titled: "Home of the Brave?" which was published by the Athenaeum Library of Philosophy:
http://evans-experientialism.freewebspace.com/steinsvold.htm
John Steinsvold
Perhaps in time the so-called dark ages will be thought of as including our own.
--Georg C. Lichtenberg
Posted by: John Steinsvold | May 05, 2011 at 03:41 AM
it all just a game
Posted by: josg | July 01, 2011 at 02:17 PM