If Jack the Ripper favored Full Employment... [View all]

[cthulu2016]

Last edited Sat Dec 31, 2011, 06:11 PM - Edit history (2)

I feel strongly about reaching full employment as an economic issue and a moral issue. (Full employment is the level at which much more employment would set off an inflationary wage/price spiral. The happy practical maximum of employment. It is probably somewhere in the 3-4% unemployment range these days.)

No presidential candidate in 2012 has or will propose any policy set that will reliably or quickly achieve full employment.

If Jack the Ripper was a candidate for president and his big issue was a set of policies that would realistically quickly take us toward full employment I would not vote for Jack the Ripper. I do not think it desirable to have a president with a history of murderous sex crimes.

If, however, somebody said to me, vis-a-vis full employment, "How can you agree with Jack the Ripper?" I would consider that person to be simple-minded in some way.

And if someone tried to defend the fact that no candidate is talking in terms of full employment by showing me a picture of one of Jack the Ripper's victims I would not suddenly "learn to stop worrying and love wage deflation."

And if I lamented that no credible candidate seemed to care about full employment and a person responded with, "Fine -- vote for Jack the Ripper then!" I would begin to wonder what the heck they had against the unemployed.


One the other hand, if someone suggested that I ought to vote for Jack the Ripper to elevate the issue of full employment, I would not do so.

First, my protest vote would send an indistinct message... it would probably be read as a national flow of support for murdering prostitutes.

And secondly it would prevent me from voting for a credible candidate who would lower unemployment more than the credible alternative.