Disappearing Jobs

What he is seeing… what I have seen… is absolutely happening now.

Jobs are disappearing. I’ve written about this before. Some of that is because of our weak economy. Much of it is because it’s now cheaper, easier, faster to have many jobs performed by computers or with computer assistance.

The word is “productivity.” We are each more productive. It’s a blessing and a curse simultaneously. At 40 hours a week we’ll never again have enough jobs for our population!

In this morning’s Times Paul Krugman wrote about that very problem and then made it even scarier.

[T]he idea that modern technology eliminates only menial jobs, that well-educated workers are clear winners, may dominate popular discussion, but it’s actually decades out of date.

Professor Krugman is quite liberal. However, his observations transcend politics. What he is seeing… what I have seen… is absolutely happening now.

We’re in a hole and trying to get out with a shovel!

9 thoughts on “Disappearing Jobs”

  1. The answer is: in the next election vote for Donald Trump who will probably be running for president. He’s the best business person probably in the whole U.S. Plus he is very politically connected already and totally aware of what is going on worldwide. He is very decisive and there is no bull crap in any of the business he deals with. I realize it cannot be fixed overnight, however President Obama has not really done his job. Why? I do not know. Do you?

    1. Patty – Donald Trump is truly a man born on third base who now thinks he hit a triple! His father, Fred Trump, was a great builder of middle class housing. Not so Donald.

      His name on a business only means his name has been bought, not that he is involved.

      Other projects of his have gone through bankruptcy more than once! His Atlantic City casinos are an example.

      Then there’s the story of what he tried to do to the tenants when he bought 100 Central Park South in the 80s.

      I have written about him myself. I am not a fan.

      1. I would like to read what you previously wrote about him. My knowledge of Donald Trump is only what I have seen on Television interviews. I know he went bankrupt with the AC Casinos. Where I was coming from was his decisive business sense even though it had to do with developing high class housing and golf courses. And of course, I have to admit – The Apprentice & Celebrity Apprentice. Donald appears to have compassion as well as passion and is so connected on many levels to high profile people. I felt the same way about Ross Perot and it seemed he had great business sense. Government is business and should be run so, or so I think. I would love to know about the Central Park thing. Am not aware of it. Thanks for your input back.

    2. That’s like putting the fox in the hen-house! Didn’t we get into the Great Recession by letting greedy CEO’S and bankers lose our investment and housing money?
      P.S. President Obama didn’t put two wars, two tax cuts for the wealthy, and the Medicare drug plan all on the credit card-
      Bush and “deficits don’t matter” Cheney did.

  2. Krugman has called it well every time – we desperately need more Keynesian economists these days.

    Unrelated: we missed you in this rainstorm / flood.
    -BA

  3. The battle between the Freshwater Economists (so-called because they’re largely at Midwestern schools) who are rightwing and the Saltwaters (so-called because they’re largely from the coasts) who are leftwing, has gotten testier since BushII. Krugman just shows the data, and reaches obvious conclusions.

    The main conclusion: you don’t make a better society/economy by making more of the populace poorer. That way is fascism. But the rightwing will never admit it, of course.

    For an in depth look at how the rightwing took over, “What’s the Matter with Kansas?” by Thomas Frank.

    Those inbred rednecks who love Limbaugh will be the end of the USofA. I mean no disrespect to those who inbreed, of course.

  4. Mr. Young, you have said it quite eloquently and I believe have hit the nail on the head.

    The undereducated poor or working class who have believed the lies they have been told by Limbaugh, Beck, Coulter, and the far right have divided the house amongst itself.

    No person who actually has to work for a living has any business being a Republican. Their interests—those of the wealthy—are opposed to our own. We are the expendable workers in their factories.

    The irony that the far right has convinced the workers that Socialism is a BAD thing is almost humorous! It is in fact the only way to make the rich SHARE the wealth—that which they have made off the backs of us and our working ancestors—which is now concentrated into the smallest segment of our population that any time in history.

    If the poor united with the middle class, there would be no beating us. But Rove and his ilk have beat us to the punch by convincing each to see the other as an Enemy, rather than the brethren they should be seeing.

    We Liberals had better wake up, take our anti-depressants, and get ready to work hard for a Revolution. Otherwise, the country as we have known it, is gone.

    1. The country as we know it, the post WWII prosperity, is historically the aberration; and the result of an unprecedented degree of national consensus following the war. More than any other event, WWII made manifest the emancipation of women. The GI Bill, progressive taxation, Bretton Woods, protection of unions all were a result. For most of its existence, the USofA was closer to fascism than democracy.

      The 19th century is a litany of corruption and depredation. Blacks, “Indians”, Chinese, Irish all were exploited. Railroads ripped off the country. Slavery flourished both before and after the Civil War. Child labor in New England should not be forgotten.

      Read Twain’s take on the Gilded Age (from Wikipedia):
      “The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today” is an 1873 novel by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner that satirizes greed and political corruption in post-Civil War America. The term gilded age, commonly given to the era, comes from the title of this book.

  5. Good lord, vote Donald Trump for president? Wouldn’t it be easier just to dump all your cash on the driveway and set it on fire?

Leave a Reply to John S. Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *