Hoping for a new direction in Macro Theory

["Harry Veeder" <eo200@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>From: Mason Clark <masonc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>To: pkt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>Subject: Terrorism and Unemployment
>Date: Mon, Sep 17, 2001, 9:57 PM
>

>I did some searches in the 156 pages of  the
>*Road Map for National Security* prepared by the
>distinguished U.S. Commission on National Security:
>
>   "terror"  51 times
>   "poverty"   4 times
>   "unemployment"  zero times
>
>But is not the unemployment of young men the principle
>source of terrorism?  Unemployed young men with no hopes
>of constructive employment are likely to engage in dangerous activities.
>If only one percent of one-million join terrorist organizations,
>that is 10,000 energetic, organized, young terrorists.
>
>If the root source of terrorists is ignored, how many billions
>of dollars will it take to win this war?

Hope is important, but one can't simply point to an unemployed
*individual* and say "there is a person without hope."

Macro economically, measures of unemployment really
measure the lack of *communal* hope. Such numbers do not
tell us which individuals are hopeless. The employed and
unemployed can both subject to feelings of hopelessness.

Hope consumes expectations. If a community
lacks hope, expectations will exceed the supply
of labour resulting in unemployment.

Harry Veeder