David Jolly in
The New York Times has
reported on the latest publication of the global Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) whose members include the United States, all of Europe, and Japan. The OECD reports, “almost 45 million people are without work in the most developed economies… High unemployment rates in most of the developed world are mainly a result of the tepid economic recovery, rather than a lack of appropriate skills in the work force.”
The Times says:
“The findings could hold significant implications for policy makers aiming to reduce unemployment, while adding fuel to arguments of economists who say that eurozone governments need to abandon austerity budgeting and instead take steps to stimulate their economies.”
The report also notes there are 12.1 million more unemployed people in the world than there was at the time of the self-induced Wall Street crash in 2007. In countries like Spain and Greece, which have fallen into depression, “a quarter or more of the population is unemployed.”
It is in the narrow and selfish interests of the very richest to keep unemployment high, because high unemployment keeps wages down by forcing workers to compete with one another for existing jobs–long a tactic used by right-to-work (for less) states to lure business from more union dense states.
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