Yes, but . . .

Your correspondent H. Westfold (Letters October 2) writes cogently about the cause of our societal collapse, and I thank him for his wisdom.

However, he is wrong about one thing. He writes that “much of the unemployment is simply the result of automation and computerisation”, as if there are now fewer jobs to go around. The facts say otherwise.

Data from Statistics NZ reveal that, in 1961, 35 per cent of our total population was employed in fulltime paid work. Those were the days when we were proud of our “full employment”.

Statistics NZ data also reveal that, in 2016, 38·7 per cent of our total population was employed in fulltime paid work. And we say we have serious unemployment. In fact, we have more jobs now than ever before.

Our so-called unemployment, which began to raise its ugly head in approximately 1970, is simply caused by hordes of young women postponing childbirth, and thus remaining in the workforce longer now than in 1961, and young mothers today putting their children into care and remaining in the workforce.

As a consequence, many who would previously have been family breadwinners are now out of work, and that unemployment is serious in these times when we have more jobs than ever before.

But don’t expect any political action