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-bulk billing doctor so instead go into their local emergency department. This is causing congestion in the emergency department. There is also an increase of illness (mental and physical) and suicide amongst the unemployed. This is creating a huge draw on our medicare and health system. Those on low incomes or unemployed cannot afford to have private health insurance, so are therefore no getting all the help they need. We are creating a system where people are leaving illnesses and injuries until they are quite serious due to the fact that they cannot afford to see a specialist.

We will now look at what the functionalists and the conflict theorists say about it.

Unemployment (Functionalism)

Functionalists believe unemployment serves a purpose in society. We need unemployment in our society, it plays its own part. For all those who are or have been unemployed, it is hard to see how it can possibly be good for society, part of the master plan. Unemployment creates so much misery and further increases the problem of stratification.

Those in the underprivileged class have to rely on government handouts, which only creates further poverty as those people struggle to make ends meet. This in turn affects the family structure by adding extra money pressures. This is the point though, unemployed people create work for centrelink staff, welfare agencies, counsellors and keep cheap discount stores in work. It also maintains that there will always be someone to take the menial jobs that others don't want. Those lower classed people will do the jobs others won't. We need the divisions to make sure there are people to cover all types of places in society.

Unemployment (Conflict Theory)

Conflict theorists see unemployment as more evidence of those in a powerful or priviledged position taking advantage of others. Power is the emphasis is an employment situation, while employed you have a certain amount of power, both over your work environment and your own life. Once unemployed you become powerless, reliant on the government to provide you an income. Once in this position, an individual is likely to take a job which is below their abilities and for less pay, just so as to be earning an income. The difference in class and standing continues to increase. Those with money, do not need to stoop to this type of position, they can instead wait until an

appropriate job comes up or they can indulge in further education to improve their position even more.

Conclusion

Unemployment plays are major part in our society, its affects are wide reaching. The implication that unemployment is an individual problem due to lack of skills, only seeks to increase the problem. The idea that who we are is depicted by what we do as a job, creates further stratification of our society. Long-term unemployment has been shown to be one of the most important contributors to domestic violence and other forms of crime, as well as psychological illness and suicide (Baker 1993).

Whether we look at unemployment from a functional or conflict perspective, there is no right or wrong answer. We need to look at it from both perspectives to get a better idea of the situation, and then to look at possible ways of dealing with the issue. There will always be unemployment due to changes in the environment, whether they are biological or technologic