The reason for unemployment

[Unkotare]

Sounds like the Econ 101 freshman who is so taken with himself could use a year of two in a communist country (or approximation thereof) to understand the real answer to his OP.

 

[Unkotare]

Maybe the OP has been sent to seek out converts to the Church of Laziology. The worthless shall inherit the Xbox and a book of coupons to Taco Bell!

 

[sparky]

Before we begin, ask yourself this question: does it help a nation when someone in that nation works long hours, without exceeding limits for fatigue regarding heavy equipment or vehicles?


Point 1: social pressure is real. When a large number of people think that a certain action is the ethical thing to do, then even if it isn't legally required, people will be pressured into doing it.

White feathers were given to unenlisted males in Britain, as a symbol of cowardice, to encourage them to enlist.

Soldiers in Russian units at the border of Ukraine, during the conflict in 2014 (notorious for being the cause of the downing of flight MH17, with 298 killed) were given the option of volunteering to help the Russian side in the conflict. They could step over a line, or remain where they were. Due to social pressure, in at least one case everyone volunteered. By volunteering they were helping the Russian-speaking side in the conflict, although it may have been better for the Russian-speaking side if they had avoided the conflict entirely by participating in elections.

Monkeys do it too: Female monkeys spur on warring males, shunning those who don't fight

In countries like the US, even after social restrictions for the control of coronavirus were announced, there were still young people having large parties. This was due to a lack of social pressure.


Point 2: people work more than they need to. The US has GDP per capita of 65,000 USD, yet it has slightly lower life expectancy than neighboring Cuba, with 8,800 USD per capita GDP. Based on these numbers, people in the US could work just 1/7 as much as they do currently, and live just as long. (In reality, it's a little more complicated with purchasing power parity and so on, but according to the US Central Intelligence Agency's world factbook, Cuba still only has $12,300 per capita with PPP.)

Some people in the US may complain that they can't buy a house even though they make enough money in a single year to buy a house in another country like Mexico, but this is only because the amount that other people work drives up prices. Either based on what they earn from working, or because their work contributes to the profits of a company like Comcast ($12 billion net income in 2020) which goes to the shareholders, who compete for limited housing.


Point 3: there are people who would work even if they didn't earn any money from it. If they didn't need money, they might choose to work for some non-profit organization instead of giving their work to a company that passes excess profits on to shareholders and executives, but for them, the amount of time they work isn't about the money.


Point 4: sometimes we do harmful things because we don't know they're harmful. We used chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in our refrigeration equipment until we learned they were destroying the ozone layer, and then we stopped.


Point 5: markets tend towards a limited amount of available paid work. Governments can create jobs by paying for things that don't make sense for private companies, like building new roads that anyone can drive on, but this has to be paid for with either taxes or inflation. (This includes inflation in the price of stocks or real estate, if most of the 'printed money' goes to enrich people who are already wealthy.)

People who are more skilled, or who have an educational degree or work experience that suggests skill, find it easier to get jobs. People who can't get jobs, resulting in them either going on welfare or suffering (or possibly doing illegal things for money), are generally less skilled. But if, say, the 50% most skilled people in a country all decided to reduce how much they work by 90% over the course of a year, all the less-skilled people would be able to get jobs and all the essential work would still get done, just as it would if a skilled person died.

(In a few places, like Gaza with 49% unemployment, there might not be enough jobs even if the 50% most skilled worked 90% less.)


Point 6: there's no useful result from depriving less-skilled people of jobs. Some people might just be unable to do a job, due to either physical or mental issues (but see how much Stephen Hawking accomplished while paralyzed, eventually communicating with only his cheek muscle), and society doesn't expect them to, but for people who do have the capacity to work, few societies prevent them from surviving if they can't find work due to lack of jobs. For those who think that stupid people shouldn't have children, and that unemployment is a mechanism that accomplishes this, it doesn't.


Point 7: if all fossil fuels were to run out over the course of the next six months, there would be a huge economic disaster. Billions of people would probably die. World GDP would probably drop by at least 84%, which is the amount of energy from coal, natural gas, and oil, even before billions of people died to reduce it further. Since ships use oil, and between 70 and 90% of the world's goods travel by sea, the drop in GDP might be even greater. If we don't prepare for the end of fossil fuels now, we'll probably get surprised in the future.

Lifestyle changes that lead to us using less energy will encourage us to be better prepared for this future.


Point 8: as fossil fuels run out, they will become more valuable, so nations that are harvesting them now are making a poor long-term decision.


Point 9: inequality has many harmful effects, like increasing crime or preventing people from isolating at home during a coronavirus lockdown because they're poor. If we solve unemployment by providing lots of jobs, we pretty much solve inequality as well, with no government intervention in the form of taxes or welfare. We might not even need a government-mandated minimum wage when there are lots of jobs available.


Point 10: sometimes actions that people know, or at least suspect, are harmful aren't legally or socially punished, and so people do them. A corporation might even be required to do these things to avoid betraying its shareholders. By changing incentives, we can change behavior.


People like to think that if they work more, it will somehow help people who need to be helped. But there's no substitute for a job. What we need as a society is a conversation about how we can eliminate the social pressures to work long hours and give people an incentive to work less, until everyone has a job and we can focus on our real long-term problems like resource exhaustion.

Think about the question at the start. Did you say that working long hours helps a nation? Do you still feel that way?

Who ever you are, you are certainly well spoken and written.

Fact is, by my lowly blue collar red neck standards, you're genius level

yet for simplicities sake , if i were impose synopsis , would something i heard in short pants during the LBJ reign suffice?

if i may.....

 

[Misaki]

Who ever you are, you are certainly well spoken and written.

Fact is, by my lowly blue collar red neck standards, you're genius level

yet for simplicities sake , if i were impose synopsis , would something i heard in short pants during the LBJ reign suffice?

if i may.....

View attachment 479620

Thank you. (Competence can vary, and I don't expect anyone here to be impressed, but I did get 1600 on the SAT in 2004 and my test scores in the military were the highest my drill sergeants, at the military intelligence training base Fort Huachuca, had ever seen.)

Look at List of countries by income equality - Wikipedia . There are lots of countries with much lower inequality than the US (and some with higher). The most equal one by World Bank Gini is Slovenia, birthplace of the US's previous First Lady, though most people still couldn't find it on a map.

But if we can still use the excuse that people in Indonesia are poor as a way to justify them throwing their garbage into the ocean, it's not enough for just a few countries to be equal. (There are many standards of success, of course, and based on Corruption Perceptions Index - Wikipedia Slovenia is only 35th.)

 

[sparky]

Bravo Misaki

of the varied points made......



~S~

 

[Misaki]

Bravo Misaki

of the varied points made......



~S~

Hah, I think I've seen this before, and when I saw the title I was thinking of this exact thing, that what's the most important is that most people underestimate the inequality.

Just like the average person overestimates their competence in any task (but the most competent underestimate), the average person who owns stocks probably overestimates their share of the total, and how much they gain when corporate profits go up.

 

[Stryder50]

Arbeit mach frei
Work makes free

Speaking of which, I need to get back to those homefront chores; dishes, the grass growing faster than I can keep it mowed/whacked down, the many garden plots needing planting, tending fruit trees and grapevines, etc.

 

[Stryder50]

Bravo Misaki

of the varied points made......



~S~

Hah, I think I've seen this before, and when I saw the title I was thinking of this exact thing, that what's the most important is that most people underestimate the inequality.

Just like the average person overestimates their competence in any task (but the most competent underestimate), the average person who owns stocks probably overestimates their share of the total, and how much they gain when corporate profits go up.

Even more worse is that many don't grasp the differences between wealth and money.

 

[Who_Me?]

I heard the funniest most ludicrous quote from Bernie Sanders. He said, "The Republicans want to eliminate the unemployment kicker of $300/mo. to "starve the poor into going back to work"" Hey Berno, everyone should be working. to carry their weight. There are plenty of jobs out there for folks to take in order to help grow the economy., you socialist geriatric.

Well Bernie, you commie lug nut, that is why we all work....to put food on the table. Get a real job and you'd find out. He needs to retire

 

[initforme]

Nothing that pays under $20 per hour is considered a job. Can't survive on that

 

[Who_Me?]

Nothing that pays under $20 per hour is considered a job. Can't survive on that

Well then you'll just have to make yourself more marketable either through education or work ethic and get a job that pays more. It's about you.

 

[initforme]

Yep...college education is the only way to six figures.

 

[initforme]

And six figures is the biggest key to happiness in america.