Seven Important Labor Force Trends

Observations based on data derived from the 1981 Handbook of Labor Statistics bring to the fore some changing realities that Job Service counselors need to accept.     

PERSPECTIVE‐NEUTRAL INTRINSIC VALUE

Is it possible to do a good thing, or to make the world a better place? Some argue that it is not possible, because perspective‐neutral value does not exist. Some argue that ‘good’ does not play the right grammatical role; or that all good things are good ‘in a way’; or that goodness is inherently perspective‐dependent. I argue that the logical and semantic properties of ‘good’ are what we should expect of an evaluative predicate; that the many ways of being good don't threaten the thesis that some ways are perspective‐independent; and that there are clear examples of perspective‐independent goodness.     

The Paid Helper's Position in Power

As the incompetent, the ill, the aged, the dependent, the mendicant, the miscreant, the recalcitrant, and the unemployed “have always been with us,” so too have those charged by society to assist these “less fortunate.” Searching for a significant sinecure, we helpers are the sycophants and supernumeraries of civilization.