ABSTRACT
The achievement is all the more remarkable in view of the difficulty in finding any political party which is actually in favour of high unemployment. On the contrary, one of the few issues over which there is wide agreement across the whole political spectrum is the desirability of full employment without inflation. Economic theory is often criticised on the ground that it applies to an ideal world of perfectly competitive markets — a world which is far removed from the experience of real life. Yet there is no harm in assuming ideal conditions — however completely they are divorced from reality. In the natural sciences, successful theories have been developed on the assumption of perfect vacuums, zero gravity, and frictionless bearings — even though no such phenomena are experienced in the real world. In the face of a critical shortage of labour, any waste of labour in unemployment is criminally irresponsible.
