NY Times: After Jobs Dry Up, What Then?

[inanna]

MARCH 10, 2015

LONDON — In March 1968, Robert F. Kennedy spoke about a governing elite who had lost touch with ordinary people and judged the state of the nation by gross national product.

“Gross national product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage,” he said. “It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them.”

“Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play,” he continued. “It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country. It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.”

<snip>

Some speak of a third industrial revolution; others call it the second machine age. With the processing speed of computers doubling roughly every 18 months and machines becoming ever smarter, paid work for human beings could become a lot scarcer — and soon.

cont'd...

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/11/world/europe/after-jobs-dry-up-what-then.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

[DetlefK]

1. Okay, I'm depressed now. I just found the republican solution to that problem:

If the toiling masses are no longer the toiling masses but the underemployed masses, who will keep the economy running?
Who will buy pants, who will buy TVs, who will buy cars...

There are two solutions:
1. The government will buy those things at a guaranteed price with taxpayer-money from the corporations, to preserve the dozen remaining jobs. The products are then distributed by the government to the masses at a price dictated by politicians. If you are against this policy, you are a job-killer.
2. The government gives taxpayer-money to the underemployed masses and they in turn buy things from corporations.



What would a Republican do?

[ChazInAz]

3. My guess.

A republican would go full Ebeneezer Scrooge and find some way to reduce "the surplus population". Wars, pestilence and famine work wonders for that sort of thing.
It's the capitalist way.

[DetlefK]

4. That's when capitalist Republicans will fight religious Republicans.

Reducing teenage-pregnancies and providing abortions would shave a little bit off the population-growth.

But you can't do that: Every child is a blessing, especially if they are unwanted, unaffordable or popped out a dozen by religious fanatics.

[LiberalElite]

6. One of them already wants to sic wolves on the homeless -

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141031881

[phantom power]

2. GNP doesn't even tell you how real people are doing economically

Neither does the employment rate, for that matter.

[raccoon]

5. Well said, Bobby!

“Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play,” he continued. “It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country. It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.”