Let's not be fooled by the contentiousness of the prefixes. Who can argue
with the neo-liberals' "natural rate" or "non-accelerating inflation rate"
of unemployment after conceding the self-evidence of the term
"unemployment". And in case Doug Henwood thinks this is an attack on the
stinking hyena bourgeois statistics from the BLS, it's not. It's just to say
there is no way to get from those stinking hyena statistics to the
qualitative differences between, say, varieties of employment and unemployment.
To use a very U.S. example, is it a "good thing" that the unemployment rate
is lower than it would be if so many black men were not imprisoned? Or, lets
take two societies, each with 20 people in their labour forces. In one of
the societies, 18 people are at work 35-40 hours a week at trades and
professions and two people are receiving full pay while on temporary layoff:
unemployment rate 10%. In the other society, three people are working 50-60
hours a week in trades and professions, another two are working that many
hours in sweatshops, five people are working 35-40 hours a week in trades
and profession, another three 35-40 hours in sweatshops, four are working
10-20 hours in convenience stores, three people work on call and their hours
vary from week to week and two people have been out of work for the past two
years and no longer qualify for unemployment benefits, some of the people
working long hours would like to work less and some of the people working
short hours would like to work more, there are also one or two people who
used to be unemployed but have given up looking for work: unemployment rate 10%.
"Obviously" the unemployment rate of the two societies is the "same" with or
without theories relating unemployment to inflation. Of course, anyone can
readily see that my second example greatly simplifies the picture of
occupations and hours of work. So, what could a *RATE* of unemployment
*possibly* mean, "natural" or otherwise?
Compared with "the unemployment rate", measuring I.Q. is about as
straight-forward as weighing a pound of butter.
Regards,
Tom Walker
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