On Sun, 3 Mar 2019 07:45:31 -0800 (PST), Gary Harnagel
wrote:

On Sunday, March 3, 2019 at 7:28:08 AM UTC-7, Chris L Peterson wrote:

Full (or near full) employment is necessary for the sort of economic
system we have. But full employment does not mean a healthy economy.
Slave states have full employment. And indeed, what we have borders on
that, with a large sector of our economy not being paid a wage
commensurate with their input to the economic system or a wage high
enough to live on properly.

What is required is full employment with a reasonable income. We lack
that.

(1) We will NEVER have full employment because there are those satisfied
with what they can get without working.

Which is fine. A certain level of freeloading is not problematic, and
is far better than the alternative of people earning less than their
productivity should demand.

(2) "Reasonable income" is highly subjective. Some consider having
a mansion is "reasonable" while others are satisfied with a cracker-
box house. Some enjoy partying, others are hermits, and others want
to support worthy causes (and that's also highly subjective).

No, it's really not that subjective. Standards exist in more developed
countries. It simply means that all people have adequate resources to
eat, be housed, have medical care, because of their income or
independent of it.

(3) In a society where goods are limited, there is ALWAYS a system
for deciding who gets what. In our society, it's gelt.

There is nothing wrong with people having different degrees of income
or wealth (within reason). That's not what is at issue here, and
modern developed societies (which does not include the U.S.) are still
highly capitalistic, but have social systems that don't make
everything dependent on wealth.

The BIG problem with the US economy is that it's debt-driven and
people are financially stupid.

No, the big problem with the U.S. economy is extreme income and wealth
disparity. Indeed, that lies at the root of essentially every single
social and political problem the U.S. faces today. Eliminating extreme
economic disparity reduces crime, expands rights, reduces domestic
violence, improves education... the list is endless.