ACHIEVING AND SUSTAINING FULL-EMPLOYMENT

Human rights and public health considerations provide strong support f or policies that maximize employment. Ample historical and conceptual evidence supports the feasibility of full employment policies. New fac tors affecting the labor force, the rate of technological change, and the globalization of economic activity require appropriate policies-in ternational as well as national-but do not invalidate the ability of m odern states to apply the measures needed. Among these the most import ant include: (I) systematic reduction in working time with no loss of income, (2) active labor market policies, (3) use of fiscal and moneta ry measures to sustain the needed level of aggregate demand, (4) resto ration of equal bargaining power between labor and capital, (5) social investment in neglected and outmoded infrastructure, (6) accountabili ty of corporations for decisions to shift or reduce capital investment , (7) major reductions in military spending, to be replaced by sociall y needed and economically productive expenditures, (8) direct public s ector job creation, (9) reform of monetary policy to restore emphasis on minimizing unemployment and promoting full employment. None are wit hout precedent in modern economies. The obstacles are ideological and political. To overcome them will require intellectual clarity and effe ctive advocacy.