Issue: Economic Structure

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Economic Structure
Overview | From the Inside | What's Out There

Overview:

Two of the biggest lies in the debate over welfare are: 1) There are jobs for everyone who is physically capable of working, and 2) hard work is necessarily accompanied by financial rewards (see paid v non-paid employment for a discussion of the latter).

To address the first issue, although we like to speak as if there is such thing as full employment where everyone who is able works, such a concept is a lie. We live in an economic system that relies on built-in unemployment as a hedge against inflation and a way to keep the balance of power consistently tipped in favor of the employer.

At the time of this writing, we have currently reached "full-employment" as is defined by our Federal Reserve Board -- meaning approximately 5% of our population is still actively seeking, yet not obtaining, employment. This supposedly good news, has the Reserve board on alert, ready to jump in and tinker with the economy should too many additional people actually gain

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Waiting Lists
Livable Wages
* Affordable Housing
* Child care
Moral Responsibility
Job Skills
Job Competition
Paid v. Non-paid
Job Structure
Debt/Credit Problems
Discrimination
Domestic Violence
Poverty
Substance Abuse
* Sexuality
Human Neediness
Societal Guilt

employment, and in-turn, has inflation-fearing investors generally panicked. The economy is not allowed to get much better than it is right now, with 5% of the population unable to find employment, plus many more who are underemployed or have given up looking.

Investors and employers rely on higher unemployment for greater bargaining power and larger financial gains. They get edgy as unemployment figures fall this low. Interestingly enough, many welfare mothers are not considered "actively seeking employment," even if in reality they are, thus, they are not part of the unemployment figures. When more mothers are kicked off the roles and have no guaranteed basic subsistence to fall back on, they will become a part of the official unemployment figure. This will effectively swell unemployment once again, allowing investors and employers to breath a sigh of relief. Could it be a coincidence that welfare laws are changing just as the economy has almost "peeked out?"

What's Out There:

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