I think of it differently. As an engineer I'd use a control volume - draw a circle around the economy. Label inputs and outputs. E.g. mining, sunlight to produce food and energy, available land and water. The economy thrives if those things have a positive balance. The money is just a strange way of scorekeeping - imaginary points the people use to regulate their selfishness.
For instance the idea of a Basic Income is proposed once the economy has enough to feed and house everyone insensitive to the exact employment rate.
I'd support Basic Income in theory, but I don't know if it's politically feasible in the US. People are still talking about dismantling Medicare and Medicaid, and of course, everything related to Obamacare, even the parts that work quite well.
It's entirely possible the answer to increased joblessness here will be to tell the unemployed to go back to school, then raise the cost of student loans by some ridiculous factor, then not actually attempt to create jobs for them when they get out.
Then again, there are states where gay marriage and marijuana are legal now, so maybe i'm too cynical.
Yeah until the current generation in power grows old and dies, we'll continue to consider 'joblessness' a problem. Remember the golden age of science fiction, where the goal was to get everybody out of work in a society run by robots? Well, the closer we get, the more we resist it seems.
For instance the idea of a Basic Income is proposed once the economy has enough to feed and house everyone insensitive to the exact employment rate.