Customer Reviews

Unemployment: The Shocking Truth of Its Causes, Its Outrageous Consequences And What Can Be Done About It

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I usually do not review books outside meditation, organic gardening, herbs, yoga, and electronics. But this book came to my attention and I thought it was worth giving this book some voice in the form of a review. Since the collapse of the housing market and the banking crisis, there has been a need to gain some perspective about why these things are happening and what we can do to improve the economy. The book UNEMPLOYMENT'S SHOCKING TRUTH by Jack Stone and Joe McCraw gives some interesting analysis regarding many of these factors. It has about 15 cartoons and about 4 graphs to illustrate the message. The book is well written and well organized, having clear chapter headings and subheadings. The book steps back and takes a partly historical perspective, going back to the Full Employment Act of 1945 and how this measure was politically subverted. It then looks at the 1978 Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment Bill and five other Full Employment Law Proposals from 1985 to 1999. The book then moves more into present and looks at the rising inequity between income and wealth and how this is a cause for more unemployment. Other chapters look at some of the many causes that increase unemployment: How the unending introduction of advanced technology is replacing jobs, how jobs are being exported overseas where there is cheap labor, how corporate mergers reduce the number of jobs needed, and how imported labor displaces domestic workers. There is a chapter on the role of the Federal Reserve in creating mass unemployment and the role of recessions in creating unemployment. The last two chapters covers the consequences of unemployment, how it is behind an increase in crime, homelessness, welfare costs, riots, and jails. The last chapters talks about possible solutions to unemployment and underemployment, focusing on programs that would create jobs in housing, mass transit, infrastructure renewal, education, energy, health care, environment, child care, teen recreational centers, and parks. There is some focus, too, on the massive amount of money that goes into the military and the need to divert this money back into this country and what it needs.The book has a lot of statistics and references to back up its insights. Many books, magazines, and articles are quoted.

What I find interesting is that many items that confirm the perspective and information in this book abound in the regular news. But sometimes when we get it piecemeal, in short sound bytes between tornadoes, earthquakes, and the latest explosion, the larger picture is not always seen. I think we do need some clear maps that go beyond taking a band-aid approach to fixing the economy, especially when the band-aids may themselves exacerbate the whole situation. Getting a larger perspective may be helpful in navigating through this period of economic challenges and Stone's book provides that larger perspective very effectively.

With the recent severe downturn in the economy, the subject of unemployment has been getting a lot of attention in the corporate news. However, the true causes of unemployment--as well as the identities and motives of its influential proponents--are carefully avoided. Unemployment: The Shocking Truth... takes a refreshingly candid look at this vital national issue, its actual causes, and what can be done about it.

This is a well-researched yet easy-to-read book. In it, the author documents the tenacious opposition of the most powerful business associations to full employment, describing the many lucrative other benefits they reap from keeping large numbers of the population unemployed. He shows how unemployment is created by the rising inequality in income and wealth, and the actions that big business takes to create millions of layoffs. Those actions include: introducing advanced technology, exporting of American jobs, merging of corporations and importing cheap labor.

No less serious for working people are the periodic interest rate increases of the Federal Reserve Bank.

Mr. Stone goes on to delineate unemployment's many outrageous consequences for working people and their families, as well as for all other Americans.

He also shows how the creation of a full employment society will require dealing with the bitter opposition to it by the business class. A variety of badly needed projects can then be carried out to create a vibrant and healthy society that could provide work to all the presently jobless millions. The funding for such a program can come from a steep reduction in the incredibly swollen and wasteful military budget, from the billions of tax dollars that corporations used to pay in the past but are no longer paying, and from the billions of tax dollars the jobless would pay once employed.
Fifteen excellent cartoons illustrate some of the book's more important points.

This book is essential for an understanding of how and why unemployment is artificially maintained by the powers that be.