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WHAT IS UNEMPLOYMENT?
At the macroeconomic level, unemployment is understood as:
• A monetary problem: It is a consequence of business cycles dynamics and profit seeking firms behavior, as well as the State’s inadequate management of the currency and the monetary system.
• A situation that cannot be remedied by private firms: The private sector is unable to produce and maintain tight full employment over the long run.
• A problem that is best understood as a silent epidemic: There is a distinct and discernable geographical pattern and propagation mechanism of unemployment, which mimics the behavior of a virus or mass contagion (Tcherneva 2017). Joblessness behaves like a disease and generates large social, health, and economic costs.
• A problem that is already “paid for”: The costs of these social and economic ills— both in real and financial terms—are already “paid for” by the economy and society at large.
• A problem by design and a public sector failure: Unemployment is a problem created by concrete policy measures (targeting a non-accelerating rate of unemployment [NAIRU], austerity policies). The government has chosen an explicit policy of keeping a percentage of the population in involuntary unemployment (the NAIRU is a policy benchmark). The government is also responsible for supporting the unemployed, i.e., the unemployed are already in the public sector. Government, public institutions, and civil society are not only paying the direct cost of unemployment, but more importantly are already bearing the large associated real costs of unemployment.
• A moral failure: Unemployment has been used as the main bulwark against inflation and economic instability and is considered a “necessary evil.” The idea that some people will necessarily lose their jobs and livelihoods in the fight against other economic ills is a profound moral failure of the economics profession.
Unemployment is the failure and responsibility of the public sector and it is already “paid for.” By contrast, the JG offers a superior policy option to the current approach, and one that is macroeconomically sound and humane. It pays to employ the unemployed, preventing and reducing the outsized costs of unemployment, supporting the production of valuable public goods, and investing in and empowering people, planet, and community.
At the macroeconomic level, unemployment is understood as:
• A monetary problem: It is a consequence of business cycles dynamics and profit seeking firms behavior, as well as the State’s inadequate management of the currency and the monetary system.
• A situation that cannot be remedied by private firms: The private sector is unable to produce and maintain tight full employment over the long run.
• A problem that is best understood as a silent epidemic: There is a distinct and discernable geographical pattern and propagation mechanism of unemployment, which mimics the behavior of a virus or mass contagion (Tcherneva 2017). Joblessness behaves like a disease and generates large social, health, and economic costs.
• A problem that is already “paid for”: The costs of these social and economic ills— both in real and financial terms—are already “paid for” by the economy and society at large.
• A problem by design and a public sector failure: Unemployment is a problem created by concrete policy measures (targeting a non-accelerating rate of unemployment [NAIRU], austerity policies). The government has chosen an explicit policy of keeping a percentage of the population in involuntary unemployment (the NAIRU is a policy benchmark). The government is also responsible for supporting the unemployed, i.e., the unemployed are already in the public sector. Government, public institutions, and civil society are not only paying the direct cost of unemployment, but more importantly are already bearing the large associated real costs of unemployment.
• A moral failure: Unemployment has been used as the main bulwark against inflation and economic instability and is considered a “necessary evil.” The idea that some people will necessarily lose their jobs and livelihoods in the fight against other economic ills is a profound moral failure of the economics profession.
Unemployment is the failure and responsibility of the public sector and it is already “paid for.” By contrast, the JG offers a superior policy option to the current approach, and one that is macroeconomically sound and humane. It pays to employ the unemployed, preventing and reducing the outsized costs of unemployment, supporting the production of valuable public goods, and investing in and empowering people, planet, and community.
