The slave is the ultimate employee, assured only of subsistence and belonging by rights totally to the employer. But today's notion of a job is very new. For political rather than humanitarian reasons, some individuals acquired rights, such as the right to vote and to run for office. The history of the 20th century is characterized by governments and companies buying political and economic stability by protecting jobs. The present job crisis is really only one swing of the pendulum.
Machines are more efficient that ever.
The state has money for neither bread nor circuses. And financiers no longer invest in their own country but instead create jobs elsewhere, where labour costs are lower. Employees here live precariously. Only by striking off on their own can people assure themselves of subsistence and security. His Economics, mediated by the figure of Socrates, features the cynic Kritoboulos and the sympathetic Isomachos in a philosophical exchange.