Jayati Ghosh on the Employment Crisis and Lack of Effective Demand in India
Jayati Ghosh speaks on the employment crisis, which is essentially the result of inadequate demand in India. Labour-displacing technological change is a problem not in itself but because it occurs in a neoliberal economic context, in which public spending on employment-intensive activities is constrained. She proposes massive expansion in public employment (in education, health, sanitation, care services including for the young and the elderly, community services etc.) and the need to support micro and small enterprises through credit, input and marketing assistance, basic infrastructure and amenities like power and water supply etc. She argues financing these activities is a matter of political will, as required funds can be garnered by reducing tax exemptions,especially to big corporations and ensuring greater tax compliance by them, as well as measures like wealth and inheritance taxes.