I think that it will not be very pretty in the short term.
In the long term, it may be that the world's productivity will soar to the point that nobody goes unfed, unclothed, or uncared-for medically.
This unintelligent 50-year-old you are describing is going to have a standard of living which is lower than a more intelligent and productive Indian or Chinese, assuming that India and China continue on the road of capitalism and freedom.
If the Chinese Communist Party attempts to maintain their power, this will act as an impediment to eventual Chinese productivity. Chinese standards of living will rise but will stop rising at somewhere less than the US has now. But the difference will not permit the US to subsidize their less productive people. They will be stuck with working very hard to make very little.
These are predictions I am making. It is not that I want this to happen. It is just the inevitable outcome of economic freedom on a global scale. Americans have had the luxury of subsidizing unproductive people for generations now. It will be sobering for them to realize that they no longer have the wealth to do so.
Tell me what YOU think is going to happen to such people as you have described. Such people expect to live better than Chinese or Indian people who are more productive. How can it be accomplished? I don't know of a way.
>Tell me what YOU think is going to happen to such people as you have described. Such people expect to live better than Chinese or Indian people who are more productive. How can it be accomplished? I don't know of a way.<
We're about to acquire a permanent peasant underclass that will only swell as more illegals swell the numbers of people who cannot do more than semi-skilled jobs increase.
That's the good news.
The bad news is that we'll all be part of that underclass when we have no manufacturing left in this country of any description.
These are predictions I am making. It is not that I want this to happen. It is just the inevitable outcome of economic freedom on a global scale. Americans have had the luxury of subsidizing unproductive people for generations now. It will be sobering for them to realize that they no longer have the wealth to do so.
Very well put. Those with the most marketable skills will do the best in what will be a bad situation for all; Those who don't push themselves out of their comfort zone and acquire those skills will have an exceedingly tough time.
None of use wish this to happen - it is just the economic version of a physicist watching a carload of people barreling toward a brick wall. The physcist knows that the result won't be pretty and those not wearing seat belts will have it worse...