Английский для социологов. Астафурова Т.Н. - 64 стр.

     THE UNEMPLOYED UNDERCLASS
     But it isn’t cri ppling deficits in the West and post-communist
chaos in the East which pose the greatest threat to the world economy.
Neither is it the global arms build-up, political instability in the
Third World or the Latin American debt crisis. No. The single biggest
economic disaster at the end of the 20th century is the emergence
throughout the industrialized nations of a vast and permanent underclass
of unemployed.
      CHEAP LABOUR FROM THE EAST
      In the EU, official figures put the number of unemployed at
more than five times what it was 20 years ago. In Central and Eastern
Europe wages have fallen so far behind escalating inflation that
immigration controls in the West have had to be tightened to prevent
an influx of workers from the East. But this hasn’t stopped Western
companies exploiting cheap labour in Eastern Europe and putting
their own employees out of work.
      THE WORKING POOR
      In the USA, where unemployment benefit is cut after six months
and staying out of work is not an option, they claim to be creating
jobs, but only at the cost of falling real incomes. For in many of the
inner cities of the USA they have something approaching a Third
World economy with millions of people working for far below the
minimum wage. In Japan too the problem is not so much
unemployment as under-employment, with many of the Japanese, in
fact, in low-paid dead-end jobs. If Europe has a growing army of
unemployed, Japan and the States now have an army of working poor.
      THE DISADVANTAGED MINORITY
      The consequences of this are far-reaching. It goes without saying
that a consumerist society depends on a plentiful supply of consumers. But
consumers need to be earning money in order to consume. Eventually,
a disadvantaged minority will undermine the whole social system.
     THE MYTH OF ECONOMIC GROWTH
     Over the past decade it has been popular to talk about economic
growth as if it were the answer to all our problems. But, even if
there were any evidence that economic growth naturally leads to
lower unemployment, which there isn’t, the rate of growth amongst



                                  – 64 –