An economics, investment, trading and policy blog with a focus on Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). We seek the truth, avoid the mainstream and are virulently anti-neoliberalism.
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Saturday, May 28, 2016
Lord Keynes — On the Value of Work in a Social Democracy
Work is undoubtedly good so we should make sure that all may work.
But who says being able to work requires a job? Much less a job created just to occupy one's time and consume one's energy, ie. a JG?
I've had jobs where I could have sat around and gotten paid for doing nothing at times when there was little for me to do. Luckily, I had flexible hours so I could split during such times even though it meant less hours "worked" and thus less pay.
The point is this one can have work without a job and a job without work. So why insist on conflating the two?
But let's say that a lot of worthwhile work not being done would require jobs being created to accomplish it?
Then why aren't those jobs being created now? Isn't it because of lack of purchasing power in the hands of the cheated/needy? Eg., think of the new dentists that could be employed if the entire population could afford to get their teeth fixed?
So the problem is NOT lack of jobs per se but lack of economic justice and wasting the time and energy of the unemployed public with a JG is just insane if not wicked. Instead we need a BIG and asset redistribution so that truly needed jobs and work may get done.
There's a perception that make-work projects are wasteful, and that only the private sector can create jobs. There's the belief that full employment will drive inflation. There's the belief that unemployment cannot be lowered beyond NAIRU. The argument that a minimum wage results in unemployment. The argument that welfare reduces the incentive to look for work and accept any job.
Lord Keynes is a joke. He's obviously EXTREMELY knowledgeable. I've followed his blog for a few years now and left numerous comments there. But curiously he has recently turned violently anti-immigration, which is not a view one is supposed to hold in polite British middle class, educated, academic circles.
I tried to point out that his views on immigration are much the same as Britain's far right. But that's obviously a bit of a touchy point for him, so he doesn't publish my comments on that topic. Hilarious.
Work is undoubtedly good so we should make sure that all may work.
ReplyDeleteBut who says being able to work requires a job? Much less a job created just to occupy one's time and consume one's energy, ie. a JG?
I've had jobs where I could have sat around and gotten paid for doing nothing at times when there was little for me to do. Luckily, I had flexible hours so I could split during such times even though it meant less hours "worked" and thus less pay.
The point is this one can have work without a job and a job without work. So why insist on conflating the two?
But let's say that a lot of worthwhile work not being done would require jobs being created to accomplish it?
ReplyDeleteThen why aren't those jobs being created now? Isn't it because of lack of purchasing power in the hands of the cheated/needy? Eg., think of the new dentists that could be employed if the entire population could afford to get their teeth fixed?
So the problem is NOT lack of jobs per se but lack of economic justice and wasting the time and energy of the unemployed public with a JG is just insane if not wicked. Instead we need a BIG and asset redistribution so that truly needed jobs and work may get done.
There's a perception that make-work projects are wasteful, and that only the private sector can create jobs.
ReplyDeleteThere's the belief that full employment will drive inflation.
There's the belief that unemployment cannot be lowered beyond NAIRU.
The argument that a minimum wage results in unemployment.
The argument that welfare reduces the incentive to look for work and accept any job.
Lord Keynes is a joke. He's obviously EXTREMELY knowledgeable. I've followed his blog for a few years now and left numerous comments there. But curiously he has recently turned violently anti-immigration, which is not a view one is supposed to hold in polite British middle class, educated, academic circles.
ReplyDeleteI tried to point out that his views on immigration are much the same as Britain's far right. But that's obviously a bit of a touchy point for him, so he doesn't publish my comments on that topic. Hilarious.