The purpose of this article is to survey the nature and causes of the severe distresses now afflicting the British economy, and to consider the changes we should be making. These distresses are most evident in our unemployment, now approaching three million and in reality a good deal more because so many are involved in training schemes or not registered. This represents a huge waste of resources and a great deal of personal suffering. There has also been a check, which cannot as yet be measured, to the steady growth of the national income which went on in the period when we enjoyed full employment. During this period, unemployment rarely rose above half a million, mostly people changing their jobs or well below the standard of employability. The change from full employment is the result of a deliberate change in policy. To understand this change it is necessary to understand the place of money in our economic life.

LRB 19 November 1981 | PDF Download