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Post by jacquelope on Aug 6, 2011 11:54:37 GMT -6
Now the chickens which came home to roost 10 years ago are being identified as chickens. Go figure. www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-jarvis/a-jobless-future----where_b_920066.htmlA Jobless Future -- Where Technology Leads to Efficiency Over Growth We're not going to have a jobless recovery. We're going to have a jobless future. Holding out blind hope for the magical appearance of new jobs and the reappearance of growth in the economy is a fool's faith. Politicians who think that merely chanting the incantation "jobs, jobs, jobs" will bring them and the economy back are fooling us if not themselves. When around a tenth of Americans are out of work, for Wall Street to get momentarily giddy at the creation of 117k jobs is cognitive dissonance at its best. No one can make jobs out of thin air. Jobs will not come back. A few new jobs reappearing won't fix anything. Our new economy is shrinking because technology leads to efficiency over growth. That is the notion I want to explore now.
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Post by graybeard on Aug 6, 2011 14:34:34 GMT -6
I read several years ago that if work were spread equally all over the world, it would require only 12 hours per week.
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Post by waltc on Aug 6, 2011 15:16:14 GMT -6
Henry Ford was once asked if automating his factories was a good thing. Paraphrased he said something to the effect 'who would buy my cars then?'
As a real industrialist and not a bean counter or MBA he understood that employed people were the key for healthy car sales or anything for that matter.
But guys like him liked building and creating things not wiping out factories to engorge their yearly bonus checks like today's execs do.
Put another way, the mentality of the people who run businesses today is far different than men like Edison, Ford and those built and ran Bethlehem Steel or even the old IBM. Even Rockefeller was in that class.
Rockefeller made the bankers of today like Rubin, Blankfein, Geithner, Paulson Kahn, etc look like devils who needed to be stomped into the ground.
Hell up until the 1980's companies were worker friendly and built good products. Then came Michael Milken - a truly evil man from one of the slimy Wall Street firms who concocted the Junk Bond which allowed nasty, greedy men with the aid of the banks to come in and do a hostile takeover of a company, then fire the workers and sell off all the assets.
Companies that were around for a 100 years ceased to exist. Others barely held on as a former shell of their former selves.
All through the 80's Milken's minions gutted American industry and millions lost their jobs. Companies were reshaped. Workers were viewed as liabilities, customer service ceased, corners were cut on products, quality became a buzzword.
To quote Scott Adams of Dilbert fame:
"Companies became lean, mean and pissed off"
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Post by graybeard on Aug 6, 2011 19:02:12 GMT -6
Yesterday was the 30th anniversary of Rotten Ronnie Reagan firing the PATCO air traffic controllers. That made open season on all unitons. Back then about 30-35% of all workers were union. Now it's 5%.
He also killed the anti-trust div of the DOJ.
GB
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Post by unlawflcombatnt on Aug 6, 2011 23:05:43 GMT -6
Thanks for the info, Graybeard. I didn't know about Reagan's killing of the DOJ's anti-trust division.
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Post by graybeard on Aug 6, 2011 23:57:50 GMT -6
He didn't kill it outright; just crippled its budget. It's had little power since.
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Post by jacquelope on Aug 7, 2011 1:00:31 GMT -6
I read several years ago that if work were spread equally all over the world, it would require only 12 hours per week. 12 hours of work per week? That's absolute friggin poverty.
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Post by fredorbob on Aug 7, 2011 2:04:47 GMT -6
Yesterday was the 30th anniversary of Rotten Ronnie Reagan firing the PATCO air traffic controllers. That made open season on all unitons. Back then about 30-35% of all workers were union. Now it's 5%. He also killed the anti-trust div of the DOJ. GB So you are saying the Republican Party is responsible for Union membership downgrading from 30-35% to 5%?
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