What can be done about mass unemployment? All the wise heads agree: there’re no quick or any answers. There’s work to be done, but workers aren’t ready to do it. They’re in the wrong places, or they have the wrong skills. Our problem are

“structural,” and will take many years to solve.

       But don’t bother asking for evidence that justifies this bleak view. There isn’t any. On the contrary, all the facts suggest

that high unemployment in America is the result of inadequate demand. Saying that there’re no easy answers sounds wise,

but it’s actually foolish: our unemployment crisis could be cured very quickly if we had the intellectual clarity and political will

to act. In other words, structural unemployment is a fake problem, which mainly serves as an excuse for not pursuing real

solutions. The fact is job openings have plunged in every major sector, while the number of workers forced into part-time

employment in almost all industries has soared. Unemployment has surged in every major occupational category. Only three

states, with a combined population not much larger than that of Brooklyn, have unemployment rates below 5%. So the

evidence contradicts the claim that we’re mainly suffering from structural unemployment. Why, then, has this claim become so popular?

       Part of the answer is that this is what always happens during periods of high unemployment-in part because experts and analysts believe that declaring the problem the problem deeply rooted, with no easy answers, makes them sound serious. I’ve been looking at what self-proclaimed experts were saying about unemployment during the Great Depression; it was almost

identical to what Very Serious People are saying now. Unemployment cannot be brought down rapidly, declared one 1935

analysis, because the workforce is “unadaptable and untrained”. I cannot respond to the opportunities which industry may

offer. A few years later, a large defense buildup finally provided a fiscal stimulus adequate to the economy’s needs and

suddenly industry was eager to employ those “unadaptable and untrained” workers. But now, as then, powerful forces are

ideologically opposed to the whole idea of government action on a sufficient scale to jump-start the economy. And that,

fundamentally, is why claims that we face huge structural problems have been multiplying: they offer a reason to do nothing

about the mass unemployment that is crippling our economy and our society.

      So what you need to know is that there's no evidence whatsoever to back these claims. We aren't suffering from a

shortage of needed skills; we’re suffering from a lack of policy resolve. As I said, structural unemployment isn’t real problem,

it's an excuse-a reason not to act on America’s problems at a time when action is desperately needed.