It makes perfect sense that unemployment would have these effects in a North American or European society infested with a bourgie morality of labor (a "Protestant ethic," Weber said, although I have my doubts about that). Indeed, it could hardly be otherwise. Such false consciousness is obviously part of both our specific equations here and the problems we're discussing more broadly. I'm inclined to think there's no way out except through it, but won't argue the point now.
Find those same effects in a society without that particular bourgie morality and I'll be more impressed. It isn't as if such societies are difficult to locate (*cough* office hours in Arab countries *cough*). You may very well be able to; I'm not arguing for a thesis here, but rather pointing out that your thesis is far from established.
I wouldn't lean too heavily on my own experience - anecdotal impressions are generally crap - but I'm currently living in a territory with a 45.2% unemployment rate, and I simply don't see your claims at work here. But prove that the effects of unemployment you describe are inherent to the situation itself, rather than its cultural context, and I'll admit you were right.
On Tue, Oct 25, 2011 at 2:52 PM, SA <s11131978 at gmail.com> wrote:
On 10/25/2011 8:38 AM, Doug Henwood wrote:
>
> NEW MEASURES OF THE COSTS OF UNEMPLOYMENT: EVIDENCE FROM THE SUBJECTIVE
>> WELL-BEING OF 2.3 MILLION AMERICANS John F. Helliwell Haifang Huang Working
>> Paper 16829 http://www.nber.org/papers/**w16829<http://www.nber.org/papers/w16829>,,,
>>
>
> Or, if you just want a factoid:
>
>
> https://www.ssc.wisc.edu/econ/Durlauf/networkweb1/London/frustratedachievers.pdf
>
-- "Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen lytlað."