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When Work Disappears: What do we do with people whose livelihoods are destroyed? (Left waking-up?)
The Daily Beast ^ | June 14, 2013 | Megan McArdle

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.

---snip---

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.)

---snip---

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 ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government
KEYWORDS: college; economy; education; foodstamps; jobs; obama; unemployment; welfare
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To: headstamp 2

IOWs... work that is not done sitting at a computer keyboard...


61 posted on 06/16/2013 3:46:08 PM PDT by Tallguy (Hunkered down in Pennsylvania)
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To: keats5

Nice lethal combination of factors there. Some could start looking for a political savior. A leader.


62 posted on 06/16/2013 3:55:29 PM PDT by 17th Miss Regt
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To: keats5

Have them send me resumes and I’ll find them something. I’ve been a career counselor most of my life.


63 posted on 06/16/2013 4:12:57 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (I'll raise $2million for Sarah Palin's next run. What'll you do?)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

FReepmail me your addy and I’ll email you my resume.


64 posted on 06/16/2013 4:21:49 PM PDT by null and void (Republicans create the tools of opression, and the democrats gleefully use them!)
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To: central_va

When I taught job-seeking classes to welfare and food stamp recipients (97% female) back in the late 80’s and throughout the 90’s, they drove better cars, wore better clothing, had more “things” than I did and I was a government employee. They were “early adaptors” of cell phones when they penetrated beyond doctors, lawyers and business executives, many years before I ever got one. Their purses and shoes were much more expensive than I could afford for my wife. We (the govt. and taxpayers) had sent many of them back to school to get their associates and bachelor degrees, yet they “couldn’t find a job” even in a 3% unemployment economy!


65 posted on 06/16/2013 4:23:21 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (I'll raise $2million for Sarah Palin's next run. What'll you do?)
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To: headstamp 2
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.

No kidding! I was in a conversation wih a mechanic just yesterday and a747 pilot was there also. He picked up a pair of pliers and, this is no bull, asked the mechanic what was this? Then he picked up a punch and asked what that was. I was struck dumb.

66 posted on 06/16/2013 4:35:29 PM PDT by SandwicheGuy (*The butter acts as a lubricant and speeds up the CPU*ou)
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To: central_va

Free Traders are the Global Warmists of Economics.....not only Al Gore pushed both....the evidence shows that both are costly frauds.

Economic Stupidity is killing this country


67 posted on 06/16/2013 4:39:38 PM PDT by SeminoleCounty (Don't Blame Me For La Raza Rubio....I Voted For Alex Snitker)
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To: reformedliberal

i didn’t knock them. i think it probably is what many people may start having to do.


68 posted on 06/16/2013 4:40:05 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

As far as I’m concerned if they don’t figure out another way to support themselves, they can lie down and die!!


69 posted on 06/16/2013 4:45:47 PM PDT by dalereed
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To: Secret Agent Man

Right. Unions drove our textile industry to the Far East. We could really use a robust textile industry right now...too late, already gone.


70 posted on 06/16/2013 4:53:39 PM PDT by abclily
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To: dalereed

They are. Young vets...white guys over 50...suicide rates are at all time highs.


71 posted on 06/16/2013 4:59:22 PM PDT by Blackirish (Forward Comrades!!!!!!!!!)
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To: Blackirish

Apparently not high enough!


72 posted on 06/16/2013 5:00:17 PM PDT by dalereed
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To: dalereed

You and Kathleen Sebelious should get along famously.


73 posted on 06/16/2013 5:06:40 PM PDT by Blackirish (Forward Comrades!!!!!!!!!)
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To: rbg81
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).

Problem is, you still need half a brain and dexterous hands. I've done plumbing and electrical work. Many youths can't handle it. You still must think creatively, and learn the code books.

Just got back from a vacation gambling (our wedding anniversary and we needed a break). At one Blackjack card table, the dealer said you can't replace us with machines. Well, another two tables we went to had new card dealers going through training. Twenty-something gals. They couldn't count, and repeatedly got confused counting the cards.

My few cards added up to 20. Hers added to 21. She let me keep my bet as a push. Another time, hers outnumbered mine and she paid me as a win. Now she wasn't going fast, she was slowly staring at the cards and almost counting out loud. This happened with three different gals, on numerous hands. The old dealers are sharp.

The young people weren't taught in school how to count! A lot of people on the dole can't do the jobs that are out there.

74 posted on 06/16/2013 5:08:52 PM PDT by roadcat
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Uh?.................we give them free stuff a t-shirt and a free lunch to vote a dozen times for the criminal that will give them more than whats behind door number three??? Suggestion, cross the border with your family and re-enter thru the border as a mexican and you will be livin large free of charge!


75 posted on 06/16/2013 5:10:19 PM PDT by ronnie raygun (yesterdays conspiracies are todays truths)
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To: MamaDearest

Re: “This democrat push for Amnesty”

We can handle the Democrat push.

It’s the REPUBLICAN push for Amnesty that will destroy us.


76 posted on 06/16/2013 5:18:12 PM PDT by zeestephen
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To: central_va

Those b@st@ards knew they were lying when they told us the rainbow/unicorn fairy tale about how globalization was going to benefit the ecomony. Do you know what they were really thinking? It was going to benefit THEIR PERSONAL ECONOMY.


77 posted on 06/16/2013 5:18:52 PM PDT by cradle of freedom (Long live the Republic !)
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To: a fool in paradise

Three hundred million people and many of the finest schools in the world and that was still not enough to provide trained American workers. Ha!


78 posted on 06/16/2013 5:20:50 PM PDT by cradle of freedom (Long live the Republic !)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
"When Work Disappears: What do we do with people whose livelihoods are destroyed?"

We know what the debt-sucking, bipartisan, political regulator folks about them. Cut the big spending on the political chattering class now! Let 'em learn a thing or two.


79 posted on 06/16/2013 5:23:25 PM PDT by familyop (We Baby Boomers are croaking in an avalanche of rotten politics smelled around the planet.)
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To: EBH

It isn’t just the liberals we have to include the cheap labor business people who are the supporters of the RINOS.


80 posted on 06/16/2013 5:34:44 PM PDT by cradle of freedom (Long live the Republic !)
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