2.12 The parable of the 100 dogs and 94 bones
Here is a short and sad bed-side story.
Imagine a small community comprising 100 dogs. Each morning they set off into the field to dig for bones. If there are more than enough bones for all buried in the field, then all the dogs would succeed in their search no matter how fast or dexterous they were. It would be hard for one dog to carry so many bones that others would miss out.
Now imagine that one day the 100 dogs set off for the field as usual but this time they find there are only 94 bones buried.
Some dogs who were always very skilled at finding bones might dig up two bones and others will dig up the usual one bone. But, as a matter of accounting, at least six dogs will return home bone-less. That is a bone-less rate of 6 per cent.
Now imagine that the government decides that this is unsustainable and decides that it is the skills and motivation of the bone-less dogs that is the problem. They are not skilled or motivated enough. They have become soft and lazy.
Thus, if the problem were to be constructed to be an individual one, then an individualised solution would be appropriate.
So, a range of dog psychologists and dog trainers might be called in to work on the attitudes and skills of the bone-less dogs. The dogs undergo assessment and are assigned case managers. They are told that unless they train, they will miss out on their nightly bowl of food that the government provides to them while bone-less. They feel despondent.
After running and digging skills are imparted to the bone-less dogs, things start to change. Each day as the 100 dogs go in search of 94 bones, we start to observe different dogs coming back bone-less. The bone-less queue seems to become shuffled by the training programmes.
However, on any particular day, there are still 100 dogs running into the field and only 94 bones are buried there!
No amount of training and motivational speeches can resolve the problem; the only solution is to provide more bones.
The point is that when there are insufficient jobs available in the economy, the unemployed are powerless to redress that shortage no matter how hard they search.
Supply side programmes, concentrating on the motivation or skills of the unemployed, will only shuffle the jobless queue in a situation of jobs shortage.
