Jobs stats point to capitalist dead end

The recent report on job statistics affirms that the profound crisis of unemployment in the U.S. is by no means abating. Released on April 6, the report reveals that only 120,000 jobs were created in the month of March. These figures dampen the optimistic outlook of economists who cited the more than 200,000 jobs created in each of the three prior months as an upturn in the economy.

New York Times editorial board member Teresa Tritch notes that even with the gain of 3.6 million jobs since the lowest point in February 2010, the economy still needs to recover nearly 10 million jobs. Tritch cites Economic Policy Institute estimates that even at the rate of 200,000 jobs created per month, it would take at least another five years for the economy to return to the 5 percent pre-recession jobless rate. The graph presents the crawling rate of recovery from the recession of 2007 to 2009, even when compared to the last two slow recoveries. (April 7)

In “Capitalism at a Dead End,” Workers World Contributing Editor Fred Goldstein, with the help of the same data as that in the graph, presents in detail his conclusion that capitalism has entirely lost the ability to produce enough jobs to eliminate the unemployment brought on by the crisis. The new book is available at www.lowwagecapitalism.com.

Goldstein states, “It is extremely important to grasp the profound nature of the present crisis. After pouring in trillions of dollars to stem the crisis, the ruling classes have lost even the temporary control that financial intervention gave them. … In the long run, the only road to genuine recovery from the present capitalist crisis, true recovery by the working class and the vast majority of humanity, is to get rid of capitalism altogether and to reorganize society on a socialist basis, where all the forces of production and distribution are operated for human need, and in harmony with nature, not for human greed and profit. The present crisis confirms Marx’s analysis and prognosis.”