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To: Southack
What has happened is that *technology* has improved the productivity of our farmers. We need fewer farmers to produce our food.

Ditto for what is happening in manufacturing.


Oh please. Having a state run economy in China offering workers at 50 cents an hour has no impact on "productivity"?

Why innovate when there's an aboundance of labor out there?
466 posted on 04/12/2004 9:44:55 AM PDT by lelio
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To: lelio
"Oh please. Having a state run economy in China offering workers at 50 cents an hour has no impact on "productivity"? Why innovate when there's an aboundance of labor out there?"

Per the sources already linked to on this very thread, China has lost 25 million manufacturing jobs, the U.S. has lost 2.5 million, and Europe, Japan, and every major industrialized economy has each lost manufacturing jobs since 1995.

One theory is that demand has declined (i.e. "innovation" isn't a factor).

My own opinion, however, is that painting robots have replaced painters on assembly lines, welding robots have likewise replaced welders, and similar technological enhancements have replaced manufacturing employees in other areas today just as the introduction of automated farming equipment (e.g. combines, tractors, trucks) caused the massive shift in American agricultural employment 70 years ago (i.e. "innovation" is a factor).

471 posted on 04/12/2004 10:20:23 AM PDT by Southack (Media Bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)
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