How Shall We Ever Get Them Back to Work?

Introduction During the early post‐war “reconstruction” years most Western countries enjoyed full — and frequently overfull — employment. Whilst this led some commentators to voice concern regarding the lack of discipline in the workforce which goes with a shortage of workers, such a malaise was not universally noted, and was in any case submerged in the euphoria surrounding the assumption that the scourge of unemployment had been conquered. The consensus pointed to the view that a Keynesian manipulation of the economy would continue to provide full employment and that designs for full employment such as Britain's wartime Beveridge Plan had been realised. Now matters are rather different.