“when unemployment is already as low as it can really go - it is…”.
Is that really the case? Sure, it’s true of the *official* measure of unemployment but we’re often reminded that there is a separate log of people of normal working age who are “not in employment, education or training”, some 5 million people, who are clearly also unemployed. Yes, that total includes idle bastards like me who prefer to live off the accumulated fruits of previous decades of toil, now wisely invested (ho ho), but in a free society that’s ok if we’re not a burden on the rest; but it also includes millions who are signed off work for year after year with medical conditions such as stress who in a more tough love culture would certainly be considered as belonging in the official log of the unemployed.
There will always be "frictional" unemployment. So, folk moving jobs etc. How much of that there is "right" is a function of the structure - not cycle - of the market. We're about there with this. Yes, you're right, there'sa lot of "not working" going on. But that's a function of the structure - not cycle - of the benefits system vis a vis the rewards of work.
I'm referring to as low as given the structure of the market and the benefits system - that is, referring to the cycle. If we change the structure then yes, much more can be done.
“when unemployment is already as low as it can really go - it is…”.
Is that really the case? Sure, it’s true of the *official* measure of unemployment but we’re often reminded that there is a separate log of people of normal working age who are “not in employment, education or training”, some 5 million people, who are clearly also unemployed. Yes, that total includes idle bastards like me who prefer to live off the accumulated fruits of previous decades of toil, now wisely invested (ho ho), but in a free society that’s ok if we’re not a burden on the rest; but it also includes millions who are signed off work for year after year with medical conditions such as stress who in a more tough love culture would certainly be considered as belonging in the official log of the unemployed.
There will always be "frictional" unemployment. So, folk moving jobs etc. How much of that there is "right" is a function of the structure - not cycle - of the market. We're about there with this. Yes, you're right, there'sa lot of "not working" going on. But that's a function of the structure - not cycle - of the benefits system vis a vis the rewards of work.
I'm referring to as low as given the structure of the market and the benefits system - that is, referring to the cycle. If we change the structure then yes, much more can be done.