> Rightwing economists are arguing that the reason why unemployment is > high is "structural." This does not mean what (e.g.) Marxists usually > mean by the term "structural," i.e. that unemployment is an inherent > result of capital accumulation. No. What the rightwingers mean by > "structural" is that the existing labor force does not have the skills > that expanding industries require of them, and that -- therefore -- > the government cannot do anything to reduce unemployment.
--------------- Thanks that helped a lot. On the other hand the stagnate economy is still a structural problem that may get better after a long time or maybe just become the new normal. The new skills argument is interesting since that is exactly what was said in the Reagan era. I remember it because I had skills up the the ass and barely kept employed exactly where I was. In terms of skill, maybe in some dream employers did on the job training, but they haven't since at least the 1970s. You should read some of the requirements on some okay sounding jobs. If you met the requirements you wouldn't need that job. The larger effect of this job requirement inflation is that more highly skilled and experienced people get shittier and shittier jobs. I wrote a job description recently and decided what I really needed was a smart, interesting young person with hobby mechanical skills. The job required a high school education (to read and fill out work orders), good attitude, and above mentioned mechanical skills usually found in autoshops, construction, bike repair, etc. anything with hand tools. This is not much of a list, and the `human relations' lady didn't like it. Trouble is that mechanical skills are relatively hard to come by these days. You really don't need mechanical skills. I put that in there because I am tired of trying to train people who really don't get it when it comes to screw drivers and wrenching. What do you do once you have trained them? They do the job, but little else. It's hard, skilled work, and it worth a lot more than 10-14/hr that was standard for entry level here. The whole wage scale is artificially depressed and skewed. The business culture itself is deeply basically sick in its perceptions of labor and management understanding of work. I think this far beyond anything Marxist about exploitation. The management culture itself is a very big part of the problem. There is a profound disconnect between the management caste and the actual labor performed and its needs. It has nothing to do with making sure people show up on time and get X number of things done. It's how they work and what they need to work at their capacity, and that knowledge seems to be missing. Well, that's been my experience. I think it's endemic but I don't know that for sure. CG CG _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
