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VOLUNTARY UNEMPLOYMENT: Unemployment that results when resources which are willing and able to engage in production choose not to produce output. These are resources (especially labor) that decide to leave one job, often in search of another. The contrast to voluntary unemployment is involuntary unemployment, in which resources are forced out of work.
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FIRST ESTATE: Another term for the government or public sector. This is one of four divisions of society based on economic function. The other three are businesses as the second estate, consumers as the third estate, and journalists as the fourth estate. The notion of dividing society into different "estates" has roots in 18th century France, in which clergy and religious leaders were considered the first estate, royalty and aristocracy were the second estate, and peasants, serfs, and the working class were viewed as the third estate. Inventive journalists extended this classification to include themselves as the fourth estate.The modern estates retain the essence of this division with an update to the realities of the modern economy. Government leaders and politicians, rather than clergy, assume their position in the first estate. Business leaders, rather than royalty, take over rule of the second estate. Rank-and-file consumers and those in the working class make up the third estate. And journalists continue as the fourth estate. In past centuries, the first estate included religious leaders and clergy. In modern times, it includes politicians and government leaders who can exert a great deal of control over resources through the coercive powers of government. One historical function of the first estate is to protect the less powerful consumers, taxpayers, and workers of the third estate from the market control typically held by the business leaders of the second estate. It is not uncommon, however, for an unhealthy degree of cooperation between the first and second estates, which often ends up with the enslavement of the third estate (figuratively and literally). At times help is forthcoming from the watchdog journalist of the fourth estate--unless they too have been overtaken by the first two estates. Consider the case of Victor Thurgood, the honorable Mayor of Shady Valley. Not only is Victor the current Mayor of Shady Valley, duly elected by a majority of voters casting ballots in the most recent election, but at the age of 63 he has never held a nongovernment job. He has been on the Shady Valley city council, served as a state legislator for many years, spent several terms as a member of the U. S. House of Representatives, bounced around as a political appointee to assorted state and federal government agencies, and was most recently Ambassador to the Republic of Northwest Queoldiolia. Moreover, Victor's father, mother, grandfather, uncles, aunts, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, nieces, and nephews have had similar employment histories. Victor Thurgood is a member of the first estate.
Recommended Citation:FIRST ESTATE, AmosWEB Encyclonomic WEB*pedia, http://www.AmosWEB.com, AmosWEB LLC, 2000-2024. [Accessed: April 28, 2024]. Check Out These Related Terms... | | | | | Or For A Little Background... | | | | And For Further Study... | | | | | |
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Much of the $15 million used by the United States to finance the Louisiana Purchase from France was borrowed from European banks.
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