I disagree with this statement. I believe there is always resistance to new ideas and new skills.
If the government stop extending the unemployment benefits and thus "enabling" workers with outmoded skills to do nothing... the desire and willingness to learn new skills for higher paying jobs will be there.
We are capable of doing amazing things... because we are Americans.
However, 50% of Americans are of less than average intelligence, and my point is that they are not capable of doing the jobs that continue to be in demand.
For example, millions of people presently drive vehicles as part or all of their job.
Present technology has the potential to automate most driving jobs and I suspect it will move into actual use more quickly than we expect.
What are those millions of people supposed to do? I read one article where the author claimed they could be retrained to write apps for the iPad. Does anybody seriously think the majority of bus or taxi drivers are capable of this?
The vast majority of those capable of working in the "real" high-tech economy are already doing so. Few of those displaced by automation will be capable of going into these fields.
Here's the problem, IMO. For two centuries now, there has been an argument between those who say technological advances destroy jobs, and those who say they create more jobs than they eliminate. Group 2 has to date been, overall, correct.
But this is not an economic law, just the way things have worked out to date. My point is that we may be starting to see conditions in which this law no longer applies. Which means we need to start thinking about what might be needed to restructure a society in which the free market really doesn't work for most of the population any more.
To me it is perfectly obvious that a command economy is not the answer, but what is?