Posted on 06/16/2013 1:38:27 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Paul Krugman has a column today on a topic you don't normally get much of from economists: sympathy for the Luddites. Back in 2001, when I sat in on my last formal economics class, this was about as daring a proposition as "Sympathy for the Devil" was as an album title.
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But I have started worrying about what's taking place at the bottom of the economy. In much of the industrial world, it seems to be increasingly difficult for people to earn a decent living without a fairly elite set of skills--or an elite set of credentials that mimic skills, like a BA in English Literature from an Ivy League institution. The ability to earn a decent living, either yourself or as part of a family, is one of the basic criteria for a decent life. (And yes, before you ask: I think trust funds can be just as toxic as lifetime welfare benefits.)
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For starters, it is politically difficult to imagine a really large class of people who simply permanently live off the state. The safety net is rooted in human instincts about reciprocal exchange. Of course, it isn't all that reciprocal--the majority of people who are net taxpayers are extremely unlikely to collect much in the way of food stamps, TANF, or even unemployment insurance. Nonetheless, the moral arguments are founded in the premise that these benefits are for emergencies, and anyone can have an emergency. They will lose political support if you have one group of people paying taxes, and a different group of people who can expect to live their entire life on the dole.
Such an arrangement would also be socially toxic....
(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...
The problem is greed. Every tom, dick and harry wants a mobile phone, cable tv and a euro sedan. These things were luxuries 30 yrs ago. I remember my Dad bringing home our first color TV - in 1967. It was a big deal. We got a window A/C unit and I thought we were royalty...
Brave New World. Betas will all do construction work in return for section 8 housing and food stamps.
They will tell us all those laid off line workers have had plenty of time to train as neurosurgeons and software engineers.
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And Microsoft will still hire Indian engineers with degrees “earned” simply by paying the enrollment fee who passed their finals by sharing answers with 20 of their closest friends... but it’s OK , on their resume they will state that they (magically) have 6 years of experience on a software platform that has only been around for two years ... but it’s all OK because that is exactly what MSFT will put in the req. .
Roadwork and the like to be more specific. Doesn’t have to be too automated. Only shovels if necessary.
a really large class of people who simply permanently live off.
Those jobs are not coming back.
Obama
Yep, I know the feeling.
In retrospect we should all have gone to work for big banks, where you not only don't get punished for bad business and criminal acts, but are rewarded with bonuses and bailouts and sometimes loot right out of customer accounts.
And we are about to import another 30 million + of them.
The other thing is that it takes increasingly fewer people to make stuff. This is independent of offshoring as its is being caused by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation. A few years ago, we saw the state of AI with Watson beating human contestants on “Jeopardy”. And those were the elite contestants. That technology is being applied to the medical field and customer service. Cars are now able to drive themselves (see the Google Car). And AI will continue to get exponentially more capable in the coming decades. Many college graduates with “knowledge” jobs will find themselves out of a job. The rise of 3D printing will also eliminate a lot of manufacturing jobs. If you want a secure job, pick something that involves working with your brain or hands that is difficult to automate (e.g., plumber, electrician, hairdresser, etc). But there are only so many jobs in that category.
Another factor driving policy is that companies just want a population to BUY THEIR STUFF. And, at the end of the day, they couldn’t care less, if the $$ people spend comes from legitimate work or welfare. In the end, public assistance is a subsidy to retail (Walmart), consumer products (Proctor and Gamble), and healthcare companies, etc. If you look at things from that perspective, a lot of the madness starts to make more sense.
If you want to know what the future will be like, read a book called “Player Piano” by Kurt Vonnegut. It was written back in the 1950s, but it increasingly looks like Kurt got it right.
The woman is saying that it “would be” a toxic situation “if” one group pays the living expenses for another group spending their entire life on the dole.
Hey, lady, it’s not a hypothrtical situation. It’s happening now and has been happening for too many years.
I’m in Group A.
...Then that means they missed the life lessons of the business world of the 1980’s.
This is America. America is not about ‘finding work.’ America is about making money, finding our own bootstraps, and pursuing our dreams.
You see...this is the core difference between Democrats and Republicans. Jobs in America have never been a finite resource, because Americans have always been able to pursue their dreams.
0bama and his ilk have killed that ability, but these men, those of us in this age group lived the turn around of the 1980’s. Sure we were young 20-somethings...but the age group of 55-60 then found themselves in the same position.
But...post Jimmy Carter and with a President with a vision for a renewed America...those men dared to pursue their dreams when society gave up on them. Us young folks...well we chased after them with those dreams.
WE know how to turn this around...the question is do we recall how they did it and did we learn anything from their tenacity?
“Our friends in the other party will never forgive us for our success, and are doing everything in their power to rewrite history. Listening to the liberals, you’d think that the 1980s were the worst period since the Great Depression, filled with suffering and despair. I don’t know about you, but I’m getting awfully tired of the whining voices from the White House these days. They’re claiming there was a decade of greed and neglect, but you and I know better than that. We were there.”
I am really good with my hands and I should have been a tradesman and worked tax free. I would have still filed a return with bare minimum amounts to make it look good.
When the first 2 words are Paul Krugman, you know you’ll need to break out the correcting pen. 90% of what he surmises has no relation to reality, logic, history, or basic economics.
Barry's "change" has come home to roost. May the democrat party bear the stigma of anger and disgust by people whose lifestyles have been forever changed to multiple jobs, lost homes, lost vehicles, and lost savings due to their job killing, economy killing policies. This democrat push for amnesty for illegals is like the cork on a wine bottle about to pop.
I agree but how do we make that jive with Obastards reelection?
That will be doubleplusgood.
We have to find a way to restore the American dream. We have to give back to people the ability to have their 'pursuit of happiness.'
The progressives/liberals/democrats have destroyed the American Dream. A smart politician would start chattering about restoring the dream.
“If you want a secure job, pick something that involves working with your brain or hands that is difficult to automate (e.g., plumber, electrician, hairdresser, etc).”
What’s that? You say the trades are fashionable again?
(grin)
The problem is that we have an entire generation or two now that have absolutely no mechanical ability whatsoever and aren’t interested in it in the least. I’m continually amazed by it in our young people. Boys especially.
When Work Disappears: What do we do with people whose livelihoods are destroyed?
Well... What about Obamacare and the “Death Panels”. I think that makes it obvious what the left plans on doing.
I have never been formally trained or employed doing it but fabricating and repairing little things is one activity that brings pleasure to me — like a little clamp I made for a motorcycle this morning. Wish I had invented the Easy-Out screw extractor — which I need for another project right now.
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