Unemployment

Press, 27 February 1981, Page 12

Unemployment

Sir, — That overproduction is the cause of our unemployment problem mav seem a joke to A. N. Fookes (February 23) but he would seem to have a short memory. Two decades ago the economy was in its boom cycle. Employment was all but full. Employers competed for workers. Workers were not : interested in jobs without overtime, and inflation we had lived

with since the first Holland Government. There were those who thought the boom times were for ever, that is, those who did not know their r italism. The workers were the same then, so wer? state-run enterprises. What has changed? The wheel is turning full circle. The boom jJars were merely filling the commodity vacuum left by World War 11. The shortages have become surpluses. The ceaseless pursuit of p: c it through higher productivity by priv-*-' enterprise has led to that crisis of overproduction which constantly, recurrently bedevils the capitalist. syst- i. — Yours, etc. M. CREEL. February 24, 1981.