Extract from 'Macroeconomics' by William Mitchell, L. Randall Wray and Martin Watts
"Imagine a small community comprising 100 dogs. Each morning they set off into the field to dig for bones. If there are enough bones for all buried in the field, then all the dogs could succeed in their search.
Now imagine that one day the 100 dogs set off for the field as usual but this time they find there are 95 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 five dogs will return home bone-less.
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. Thus, if the problem were 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 them while bone-less. They feel despondent.
After running and digging skills are imparted to the bone-less dogs, things start to change. While the training helps some dogs improve their luck at finding bones, others turn up boneless. All the training does is to shuffle the queue, always leaving at least 5 dogs without bones.
The point is that when there are insufficient jobs available in the economy, the unemployed are powerless to reduce that shortage no matter how hard they search.
Supply side programs, concentrating on the motivation or skills of the unemployed only shuffles the queue in the situation of a jobs shortage."
~William Mitchell, L. Randall Wray and Martin Watts, Macroeconomics, example in box 14.1 on p.213
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