The RBA’s policy deliberately creates unemployment. So why do we treat the jobless so badly?

By Warwick Smith, Honorary Fellow, School of Social and Political Sciences, The University of Melbourne

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) will look at the latest unemployment figures – 4.3%, roughly 650,000 people out of work – and see a labour market that is still “too tight”.

In other words, not enough people are unemployed for inflation to come down. Although that figure reflects almost none of the economic fallout from the war in the Middle East, it will strengthen the case for further interest rate hikes.

The logic of these expected…

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