The sheer immorality of mass unemployment Peter Cadogan Mass unemployment is not essentially an economic problem. It is a moral matter. Ability to work is fundamental to self-respect and that makes it 'a good'. The denial of the right to work is a denial of self-respect and therefore 'a bad'. Moral objection is thus the foundation of the case against mass unemployment.
Economic factors are important but secondary.
Further, mass unemployment is political before it is economic. The calculated political imposition of unemployment since 1979, to reduce demand and undermine the unions in the cause of reducing inflation, is an offence against society. There were other ways to solve those problems, as the Germans and the Japanese have shown. Any phenomenon needs to be judged by its consequences. Chronic large scale unemployment increases the stress factor that in turn worsens the sickness and death among its victims.