Core Idea
Labor markets are not ordinary markets for an ordinary commodity. They are the institutions through which people sell their capacity to work because they need wages to live.
How It Works
In textbooks, markets often clear if price falls far enough. Varoufakis attacks that image with the story of Wasily, an educated man who cannot find work even as he lowers his expectations. The point is that hiring depends on expected sales and profitability, not just on how cheap labor becomes.
This makes labor markets structurally unequal. Workers usually need a sale more urgently than employers need a purchase. That urgency shapes bargaining power. The market is therefore not a neutral meeting point between equals. It is a structured relation built on the prior fact of market society.
Example
If no one expects profitable demand, even workers willing to accept very low wages can still remain unemployed. The issue is not simply price. It is the wider system of spending, confidence, and power.
Why It Matters
This concept is one of the book's strongest corrections to simple economic common sense. It shows why unemployment can be systemic rather than personal and why labor cannot be understood like apples or shoes.