{"id":17169,"date":"2012-09-06T09:20:54","date_gmt":"2012-09-06T08:20:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=17169"},"modified":"2012-09-06T09:20:54","modified_gmt":"2012-09-06T08:20:54","slug":"is-unemployment-deliberate-you-bet-it-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2012\/09\/06\/is-unemployment-deliberate-you-bet-it-is\/","title":{"rendered":"Is unemployment deliberate? You bet it is"},"content":{"rendered":"

Frances O'Grady -\u00a0incoming\u00a0TUC general secretary - has suggested in a\u00a0Guardian\u00a0interview today that high unemployment is a\u00a0deliberate ploy being used by the\u00a0government\u00a0to suppress wage claims and destroy\u00a0\u00a0employment\u00a0rights.\u00a0As she puts it<\/a>:<\/p>\n

There was certainly a strong view in the 1980s, not just among\u00a0trade unions, but also among a number of intellectuals and commentators, that unemployment was being used as a deliberate measure to keep pay down, and to keep people scared. As long as the number one worry for people, keeping them up at nights, is whether they're going to have a job in the morning, then they are less likely to resist unfair changes, or unfair treatment, or cuts in real pay at work. So there's a fair bit of evidence to suggest it can be a deliberate policy. And I think we do legitimately have to ask why the government isn't taking action to create decent employment for young people, when the evidence is that if you\u00a0don't<\/em>\u00a0do that, you really are going to pay a very high price.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Treasury is not having it. They responded, also in the Guardian:<\/p>\n

To suggest [youth unemployment] is a deliberate policy is utterly ridiculous, a ridiculous accusation that is, quite frankly, utterly laughable.<\/p>\n

The government is determined to tackle youth unemployment; the Youth Contract will provide nearly half a million new opportunities for 18 to 24-year-olds and is backed by almost \u00a31bn of funding. We support the creation of jobs be they full time or part-time.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now, of course I'm biased: I work for the TUC<\/a>, and am proud to do so, but on this issue all the\u00a0evidence\u00a0stacks one way, and that is on Frances O'Grady's favour. The \"opportunities\" the\u00a0government\u00a0refers to are little moe than shallow work creation\u00a0schemes\u00a0that have limited quality, no enduring value and no real job\u00a0prospects. And that is\u00a0inevitable: this\u00a0government\u00a0has persistently refused to stimulate demand to create private sector employment whilst\u00a0simultaneously\u00a0cutting\u00a0government\u00a0investment and jobs in a \u00a0vain\u00a0attempt\u00a0to cut debt, which as the FT notes this morning is\u00a0unlikely\u00a0to work during this parliament<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Why has it pursued this policy? The only possible explanation is that it wants a more neo-liberal market and that is one where there is less\u00a0regulation, much more\u00a0limited\u00a0employment protection and more\u00a0supply\u00a0side freedom to sack workers - and limit their pay. All of this is\u00a0policy\u00a0evidenced in what the\u00a0government\u00a0is doing. In that case either O'Grady is right and unemployment is the aim or alternatively the\u00a0government\u00a0is simply indifferent to unemployment being the\u00a0consequence\u00a0of its\u00a0policy. In either case there can be no doubt it has not one iota of concern for those\u00a0unemployed\u00a0- because it and the Tory party at large think them feckless and deserving of whatever\u00a0comes\u00a0their way. This is the\u00a0manifestation\u00a0of their belief that wealth, high pay and status are sure\u00a0indicators\u00a0of moral worth, and so\u00a0unemployment\u00a0is the result of immorality and as such deserved. That's callous, illogical, unethical and also very\u00a0obviously\u00a0simply unfounded and untrue, but that's never stopped a neoliberal believing in anything: you have to suspend\u00a0your disbelief to be one so absurd are the\u00a0assumptions\u00a0that\u00a0underpin\u00a0neoliberal economics and thinking.<\/p>\n

So I suggest, based on the evidence, that Frances O'Grady is right. But more than that, tellingly she has hit a nerve, and that's the good news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Frances O’Grady –\u00a0incoming\u00a0TUC general secretary – has suggested in a\u00a0Guardian\u00a0interview today that high unemployment is a\u00a0deliberate ploy being used by the\u00a0government\u00a0to suppress wage claims and
 Read the full article…<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17169\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}