<![CDATA[RealClearPolitics - Articles by Herbert Gans]]>http://www.realclearpolitics.com/authors/?id=23729Author <![CDATA[The Age of the Superfluous Worker]]> Fri, 25 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0600 AMERICA, like other modern countries, has always had some surplus workers — people ready to work but jobless for extended periods because the “job creators,” private and public, have been unable or unwilling to create sufficient jobs. When the number of surplus workers rose sharply, the country also had ways of reducing it.

However, the current jobless recovery, and the concurrent failure to create enough new jobs, is breeding a new and growing surplus pool. And some in this pool are in danger of becoming superfluous, likely never to work again.

The currently jobless and the so-called discouraged workers, who have given up looking for...]]>