Towards Full and Decent EmploymentUnited Nations | 2008-02-07 00:00:00 | United Nations | 412 | Economics
While the international community has made a commitment to achieving full employment, this goal seems ever more distant in view of recent trends such as growing unemployment, underemployment and the phenomenon of jobless growth. This book also breaks new ground in seeking fresh solutions. Employment creation is the key link in ensuring that economic growth contributes to poverty reduction, with management of technological change playing a crucial role. While the recent trend towards greater labour flexibility seems irresistible, recent experience suggests some options for also ensuring decent work and economic security. Alternative macroeconomic policy priorities can also make a difference. New approaches to social security, the informal economy, the welfare state and rural employment in Africa are explored.
Reviews The subject of the book "Towards Full and Decent Employment" is very timely in late 2008. The book itself was published in 2007. Distinguished contributors wrote it under the auspices of the United Nations. Most of its chapters are written in a scholarly style, which can make it difficult for the average reader, among which I count myself. I have only had time to look at several chapters. The Preface states the goals and outlines the problems and challenges. The Introduction briefly describes the following chapters, pointing out recent trends with a negative effect on employment. Chapter 6, on Growth, Employment and Poverty, is an example of a chapter that is scholarly in style, but also contains summary tables that are immediately understandable.
So far I have not found a chapter that emphasizes the basically physical nature of economic activity, except Chapter 7 on Africa. I have in mind the point of view taken in the book "The Economy of Nature", Fifth Edition, by Robert E. Ricklefs. Whatever approach a nation takes in the capitalist-socialist spectrum, it seeks to achieve efficient use of physical resources, including the human work force. The important point to make now is that all nations possess physical resources, and hence the means for creating wealth. In the case of Africa, the use of physical resources by nations and settled communities is being impeded by war and war refugees.
The urgency of full employment is obvious now. People need jobs to go on living. (The book under review suggested that full employment could be achieved gradually.) But how can the United States create jobs immediately and still retain its capitalist structure? The answer to that is to be found in Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal.
The situation now is different with regard to labor mobility from that faced by FDR, but first consider what he accomplished. In the Great Depression deterioration had proceeded to the point where prices and wages were both dropping rapidly. In 1933 the National Recovery Administration, the NRA of that time, succeeded in getting the cooperation of nearly all industry in bringing wages and prices to a fair level. Industry councils themselves determined the fair levels, rather than having government decide. After about two years the Supreme Court found the NRA to be unconstitutional. But by then the NRA had achieved its purpose
By 1937 the national recovery was attained. An indicator was the sales of Ford V8s, which were the popular car of the time. The 1937 Ford V8 had been designed for depression times. It was lighter in weight than in the previous years, and the 85 horsepower engine was reduced to 60 horsepower. It did not sell well. People had money again, and they wanted what they wanted. In 1948 the previous weight and horsepower were restored.
The capitalist structure had been saved, with only temporary suspension. The only changes that were institutionalized were needed ones, like Social Security and government insurance of bank accounts.
The situation now is somewhat different. Workers don't usually feel loyalty to their company. If it is fairing poorly, they move to another company rather than accept a pay cut. This complicates the problem that the NRA solved with its fair prices and wages. Solving this will present a challenge to the team of experts assembled by President-Elect Obama.
The problem of corporate monopolies is more understandable to most thoughtful Americans. In the late Nineteenth Century, due perhaps to concentration in the oil industry which produced kerosene for lamps and lighting, the Sherman Anti-Trust Act was passed. In 1911 it was used to break up the Standard Oil Trust (Into Standard of California, Standard of New Jersey, and Standard of Indiana?). More recently, in 1982, the old AT&T (the Bell Telephone System) was broken into regional Bells. During the past eight years enforcement of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act has been suspended. This has led to monster corporations that gobble up each other in efforts to avoid large bankruptcies.
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