Over five million manufacturing jobs have disappeared from America in the last 30 years. But over 30 million lower-wage service industry jobs have been handed out. GM fell. Wal-Mart rose. This fundamentally changed the character of the American economy, and probably of American society.
The spike in unemployment during the GFC is a side-effect of this structural change in the economy. A service-based economy is a consumption-based economy. A consumption-based economy is a debt-based economy. When debt loads – government, household, and business – are unbearable, consumption falls. Unemployment rises as people spend less money.
Quelle: Distortions and Imbalances
