In 1943 the economist Michał Kalecki wrote down an argument about the political consequences of full employment. Kalekci’s argument was that, when everybody has a job, or can easily get another job, the power of employers to discipline workers and moderate their pay demands was too low to be deemed acceptable by capitalists. Anything to disrupt full employment could and would be done to regain the power to hire and fire.   Here is how Kalecki put it:   “[U]nder a regime of full employment, the ‘sack’ would cease to play its role as a disciplinary measure. The social position of the…

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