http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2016/images/te_unemployment_small.jpgUnder neo-liberal capitalism, where the level of activity requires "bubbles" to sustain itself, the paucity of aggregate demand as a general feature constitutes the obvious explanation. But even in an economy where the State recaptures its ability to boost aggregate demand by pursuing whatever fiscal policy it wishes to, by way of taxation and fiscal deficit, the maintenance of a high level of employment requires increasing intervention by the State, from "demand management" to an "incomes and prices policy", and so on, which undermines the social legitimacy of the capitalist system and which therefore is impossible to sustain within the confines of the capitalist system. To say this does not mean that we should not demand higher employment under the existing system or that we cannot even achieve through our struggles higher employment under the existing system. What it means in fact is just the opposite, namely that a persistent struggle for employment within the system is a way of transcending the system itself; and this constitutes an all-powerful reason for our engaging in this struggle.

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