Absolutely - one idea behind my clumsy formulation is to highlight that we are throwing away a chance at wealth by wasting so many (wo)man hours in this depression.

It's sort of scary that we've replicated the waste of the communist system in a different form.

There people were often in jobs where they were engaged in useless activity - making things that no-one wanted.

Our eminent free market economists have created a system where that doesn't happen - instead the people just sit idle.

But it's the same failure...