One Way to Maintain Low Unemployment

[Boojatta]

But the countries which have continued to maintain low unemployment have maintained a sector of the economy which effectively functions as an employer of last resort, which absorbs the shocks which occur from time to time, and more generally makes employment available to the less skilled, the less qualified. There is, of course, a cost associated with this concept, but it is a cost which societies with a high degree of social cohesion have been willing to pay.

In Japan, this shock-absorber has been the domestic service sector. Japanese manufacturing, competing in world markets, is formidably efficient, but the domestic service sector -- travel, restaurants, leisure activities and so on -- employs far more people than comparable companies and industries elsewhere in the West. (...) in Japanese restaurants, for example, many people are employed to carry out what often seem to visitors to the country to be trivial or even pointless tasks. But whether it is soccer clubs, restaurants or whatever, the costs of all these people appear on the bill which is presented to the consumer of the services.*

* A friend of mine assures me that in one of the most exclusive restaurants in Tokyo a person is even employed with the sole function of reviving foreigners who have fainted when confronted with their bill.

From:
Chapter 10, "Economics Revisited"
in The Death of Economics
by Paul Ormerod

[Mind_your_head]

1. WTF? What are you suggesting here?

When I went to China back in the early 90's there were women at certain tourist attractions that handed out bits of toilet paper to visitors using the bathrooms.

One had to indicate that they were intending to "go number 2" to get more paper from these ladies (whether it was true or not).

IS THAT WHAT YOU ARE SUGGESTING TO LOWER UNEMPLOYMENT? Is that sort of a "job" REAL EMPLOYMENT????

Handing out toilet paper?

[izquierdista]

3. It must be a Communist thing

You still find it those bathroom attendants in the Eastern Bloc and the Former Soviet Union, but with each new modern plumbing installation, one more old lady goes off to collect a pension.

[imdjh]

4. it would be nice to bring back busboys.

The horror stories people imagine in restaurants are largely that: stories. But the demise of the busboy in all but the best restaurants is something that ought to concern people. Corporations killed off the busboy position when they bought the existing chains and then created their own. Those waiters at TGIF look spiffy, and they try to maintain high standards, but they are required to do jobs that waiters aren't supposed to be doing. Waiters are NEVER supposed to touch food or garbage. They are never supposed to touch food, because they handle money and the clean. They are never supposed to touch garbage (bus pans, garbage cans) because they MIGHT touch food. But waiters now routinely clear tables, load dish racks, empty bus pans, empty garbage cans, and other dirty tasks once performed by busboys. Waiters also routinely make salads and garnish dishes. Yes, there are sinks to wash hands, and tongs to handle things, but get real- time is money. They don't deliberately do anything gross, and in reality most of what they do is no threat to the public health under normal cirumstances- but it's not the way it's supposed to be done.

[Laelth]

2. And how do we order employers in these "industries" to hire more people?

Our capitalists cut costs whenever possible, and labor is the first thing to go. While this "shock absorber" may function in Japan, it is anathema to our corporate culture.

:dem:

-Laelth