Posted on 01/15/2013 9:35:42 AM PST by ksen
For most of modern history, two-thirds of the income of most rich nations has gone to pay salaries and wages for people who work, while one-third has gone to pay dividends, capital gains, interest, rent, etc. to the people who own capital. This two-thirds/one-third division was so stable that people began to believe it would last forever. But in the past ten years, something has changed. Labor's share of income has steadily declined, falling by several percentage points since 2000. It now sits at around 60% or lower. The fall of labor income, and the rise of capital income, has contributed to America's growing inequality.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
I believe that this is one issue that should, in a rational world, transcend political divides.
Wooden shoes work well to jam up the machinery...
lol, sabo-tage.
why does that make me think if Kim Cattrall?
French workers would through them in the machinery in the early 1800's.
not clicking that link at work buddy! :whyyou:
I used to work with once but It called me fat so we had a falling out ;)
This sounds a bit like 0bama complaining about ATMs and online air travel reservations for unemployment.
We don't dig ditches anymore. I eliminate administrative staff time with innovative software solutions, but people still work.
Change is the only constant. We have to deal with it.
You can’t protect workers from the forces of history and technology. Workers need to protect themselves. Get new skills, things nobody is projecting as being automated in the next 20 years, when in doubt learn how to run the robots.
Onward progress, I say. Free people up to do other things. We’ve had this argument throughout our history (horse and buggy, ice man, milk man, etc) and those that want to hold onto the old way are always wrong.
Don’t fall for it. Bring on the robots.
Not nervous at all.
lol, sabo-tage.
why does that make me think if Kim Cattrall?
Most Illogical....
Sure you can.
What a very starnge formulation!
Do nations have "income"?
Does the nation pay your salary?
Does the nation pay you a dividend? Capital gains? Does the nation pay you any rent?
In a perfect Socialist world, where the means of product are communally owned, then I suppose "the nation" might have a vast income, and might parcel that money out to the laboring classes.
But we're not there ... yet.
Like have a revolution if the economy gets structured in such a way that they cannot make a living for themselves because over half of the available jobs have been automated?
How will they do "other things" if they aren't able to earn the money to finance those "other things?"
Sorry but you’re wrong. People have been having this discussion since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution and the situation has remained consistent, people who adapt their skills thrive, people that insist reality stop progressing fail. The technology WILL advance, the percentage of our manual labor done by machine WILL increase, the need for low skill workers WILL decrease. People need to protect themselves, not expect the world to help them.
Oh, and I’m not arguing that advancing technology is a bad thing. I’m saying as it advances there should be ways to help open up opportunities for a wide swathe of people to become capital owners and thus able to participate in the large increases in the return on capital that seems to be coming our way over the next few decades.
I think the author has some intriguing ideas along these lines: i.e. relaxing Sarbanes-Oxley a bit in order to make it more attractive for more companies to go public.
I suppose we’ll all have jobs as government bureaucrats, regulating the robots. Or as Diversity Coordinators for the Splunge Foundation, or somesuch.
Well change makes everyone nervous espceially change that affects jobs. Understand. However robot labor is inevitable and won’t be stopped nor should it be stopped. Whatever can be automated in a quality manner will and should be automated. There will still be jobs for people but they will be different new types of jobs. People must adapt. I am looking forward to low cost home robots that can do chores around the house.
Times have changed. Basically, both couples usually work, we work more hours, and salaries are stagnant. Don't worry though, we are more productive now than ever before!
Throw in more millions into the labor force via amnesty and your gonna have a utopia!
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