The workings of capitalism remain a mystery to its proponents. They tell us “the market” decides, and that everything depends on “confidence”.
When things go right, or seem to, it shows how wonderful the system is. When they go wrong, well, that’s a surprise. And when they don’t make sense, that’s another mystery.
In August the statistics told us that the economy was in decline but that employment was on the rise. Truly, an economic miracle!
Precisely what is going remains – true to form – a mystery, but one fact emerges clearly: that the government’s definition of an employed person is not the same as most people’s. The government says that if you work just a bit, then you are working. With increasing numbers working part-time or intermittently, that’s increasing numbers who don’t appear on the jobless totals – but who certainly don’t count themselves as employed.
If things carry on like this, we will reach full employment when the economy disappears completely – the ultimate triumph of capitalism. Of course, by then there may be no statisticians left to report the good news. ■