#314: Stealing food does not a criminal make

I come from a country where the official jobless rate never matched reality. There were always far more people desperate for work than the government cared to admit to. That was tolerated because the country was kindly labeled a developing economy.

It could not happen here in a developed economy, a first-world economy, the leading economy, could it?

Yes. The official jobless numbers are much lower than reality. You see, official numbers exclude people who have given up searching and those who work part time out of necessity.

All governments tend to project the rosiest picture to keep their citizens sedated. And yet, we in business know from terrible experience that unless we face up to harsh realities quickly, we might not have a business to manage.

Here’s what I learned in Africa. Unless we all deal with this harsh reality, we will make criminals out of desperate people who steal food to feed hungry children.

(This piece was inspired by Bob Herbert’s article “A Scary Reality” published in the New York Times on August 10, 2009)


I’m James McIntosh at nonsenseatwork.com

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