INSURING FULL EMPLOYMENT

To almost everyone who has ever thought about it, ""full employment"" is one of those things which only happen out there in that land where parallel lines are supposed to converge. This belief is probably even more deeply held today than ever before with the spectre of technological displacement lurking behind every industrial bush. Yet Mr. Pierson has come up with a scheme to obtain it, and what's more, it is a scheme which can be stated quite briefly in layman's language without becoming patently absurd. In the sketchiest of outlines, it consists of the use of a slightly enlarged version of the Employment Act of 1946: the President, each year, would give Congress desired figures for both the gross national product and the number of available jobs; Congress would then secure these levels by means of a discount stamp plan or consumption tax on the one hand, and by stepping up or slowing down federally sponsored public works on the other. As described, it seems both simple and practical; in fact, so simple that most of this book has been devoted to telling us why full employment is desirable, what the employment trends have been since the '30's, and related international matters such as the balance of payments headache and the problems of underdeveloped countries. The only matter the author does not get around to solving is how, in the light (or darkness) of foreseeable political and commercial realities, his ideas could ever be transformed into action.