Shelf Stacking For Beginners

As we begin the run up to the next General Election, which may or may not be in 2015, apart from the trivia much of the argument is around Health, Welfare and Employment with some Barnum and Bailey events in finance, the media and policing.

Meanwhile the world is changing and we are reluctant to notice or even to work out why or to what effect.  The science or roulette wheel of economic theory is not telling us much and if it can no longer explain the recent past then it is unlikely to make much sense of the future.

Today’s “Naked Capitalism” features an article in the New York Times Magazine in which Adam Davidson discusses the actual basic structure of the labour market past and present.

NC suggests that the article indicates a favourable view of the economics of exploitation as they apply to the labour market in the USA.  But it could just as well apply to Europe. 

What it means is that the future for the bulk of the working population is becoming increasingly bleak.  This means an impact on the development of the economy in adverse ways, more or less a self reinforcing system of decline.

It is a little long but not much and clearly written.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/magazine/why-are-harvard-graduates-in-the-mailroom.html?_r=1&ref=magazine

It might explain why so many people now spend so much of their disposable income on lotteries and in gambling.  Those who watch football on satellite TV will be all too aware of the relentless marketing of the betting companies and agencies.

Life has always been a lottery, but we had a brief time in the late 20^th Century when for many people it was not like this.

Which brings me to the theory of what will happen in a polity where there are too many young men with too little to do and too little a future to work for or hope for.

Around the world we are already beginning to see.