Full employment is politically impossible under capitalism because firing would lose its disciplinary power

Evidence

In 1943, the Polish economist Michał Kalecki, one of the most important and innovative theorists of the past century, reflected that within capitalism, eliminating unemployment might be a technical possibility, but it certainly is not a political one. He argued, “Under a regime of permanent full employment, the ‘sack’ would cease to play its role as a disciplinary measure… [creating] political tension” in a short article titled “Political Aspects of Full Employment,” which warned against Keynesian technocratic optimism. — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 255

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the Milgrom/Roberts work on unemployment’s disciplinary role and to Marx’s reserve army concept discussed elsewhere in this chapter; also joins the broader austerity reading list. — connects to: Eliminating unemployment under capitalism is technically possible but politically unacceptable. — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism: An Intervention, 255; Full employment would let workers challenge capitalism itself, not just wages. — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism: An Intervention, 256; Teachers must enforce discipline just as disciplinary institutions collapse under capitalism — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No…, 55
• SEED: Article angle: ‘The Full Employment That Dare Not Speak Its Name’ — why mainstream economists who know the math reject the political conclusion.
• DEEPTHINKING: A single dense insight explaining the entire political economy of austerity in one disciplinary-mechanism framing — the ‘sack’ as the hinge on which capitalism turns.

Broader Connections

• Eliminating unemployment under capitalism is technically possible but politically unacceptable. #expands (0.85) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 255
• Full employment would let workers challenge capitalism itself, not just wages. #expands (0.80) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 256