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Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: Lacey, WA. USA
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No, Steve. Billy's got it exactly right. Capitalism requires a certain level of unemployment (at least, if you assume wages are at equilibrium). You see, the official "unemployment" rate does not include those who have stopped looking for jobs. The actual unemployment rate is much higher if you count the folks who have fallen out of the public assistance and actively looking for work categories. 4% (which is lower than we usually have, by the way) includes only those "frictionally" unemployed and available for a new job.

If there were no unemployment, then there would be no one available to take new jobs unless you entice them away from their existing jobs. To do that, employers would need to make a more attractive offer, and wages would rise. Heavens! What a disaster that would be, eh? Placing a high value on a person's weekdays before 6 pm? Heresy!

Indeed, capitalism simply does not offer full employment. It cannot. There must be a pool of available labor, or else wages are out of equilibrium.
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Old 04-05-2004, 01:42 PM
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