[sly671]

So you're telling me that if a group of switchboard operators lose their jobs, they're going to hire every single one back as a network administrator? What would be the point of spending the extra money on the labor saving machines? And those jobs could come back....it just might take a while. Finally, they aren't given money to come, they're given tax breaks that lower their costs and the consumers'.

[lelio]

And those jobs could come back....it just might take a while.

In the long run we're all dead.

they're going to hire every single one back as a network administrator?

Nope, most likely they'll hire back 1/10th tops. But there's a chance in there for people with some motivation to get hired on for a position that's more advanced and using the skill set. What's a laid off computer programmer that was displaced as someone in India will do the job for 1/15th of this cost supposed to do?

In that case there's no "construction" side to the creative destruction of capitalism. There's just a hole. Now you can say "Well he can move on to another field" -- joining his 10k fellow programmers / radiologists / CPAs / etc.