@Alon @kentwillard "divisions…way worse" is very subjective. I agree that unemployment divides the policy into people suffering horribly and people who ignore them and get on with their lives, and that's worse morally. But politically, it is just the case that a recession that cleaves workers into unemployment is less destructive of incumbent votes than an inflation than harms the median voter. 1/

@Alon @kentwillard Places that are long-term depressed, high-unemploymnt, low-growth, low-inflation are full of discontent and division for sure. Failure and poverty breed fascism. https://drafts.interfluidity.com/2023/08/14/fascism-as-triage/

But that's a very different question than the question that faces political actors, whether a near-term downturn is better met with austerity to stimulus over the next electoral window. A hopefully transient unemployment is more survivable than an inflation.

/fin