Despite what others are saying, if there’s no need for ‘labor’ anymore, you’re going to have an awful lot scary stuff going on. If manufacturing’s gone, that leaves services left, mostly unskilled. I’m not sure what will happen but there’s a possibility for some sort of serious disaster.
How much of your salary are you willing to donate in order to keep “labor” laboring? Put a percentage on it.
It was written over ten years ago regarding the service economy. I find it pertinent today to our current discussions. A very interesting look into what we thought then and what we have now. It appears to me that Adam Smith was more correct than Richard B. McKenzie.
I also find it interesting that "conservatives" attempt to classify businesses as traitors or unpatriotic. Businesses are no such things and cannot be such things. Assigning anthropomorphic attributes to business is illogical.
I find no reason for business to remain in a place that is economically hostile to its own existence. Some on this very thread are supporting trade barriers and tariffs. Why? Those solutions are only temporary.
Until the American worker is willing to comprehend who their competition is, how their ability to compete has been crushed by their own government policies and special interests, we will not have the industrious American return to our country.
I shake my head in disbelief at some who say we need to force China to pay their workers more etc. Who are we to hold that "gun" to China's head? Really are we not just espousing the very Progressive Agenda we claim to be against here? China business is bad and needs to redistribute its wealth? Isn't that what we're saying and ultimately trying to force?
Conversely the voices that seek to demand I buy the higher priced American goods, for what reason? The claim is to protect American jobs? At what price? My freedom and the Progressive Unions ability to redistribute my wealth at both the point of purchase and now as "special interest taxes" in Washington, DC? Am I unpatriotic to refuse to buy such goods? Am I really a traitor for refusing to support the Progressive Agenda. This returns me to my first point...
American workers don't know how to compete on a global scale. In fact, most manufacturing workers if unionized refuse to compete. And then shake their heads in amazement and fists in anger as their jobs go overseas.
This is not the fault of business. It is the fault of the democrats, unions, liberals, progressives, and environmentalists. It is the direct result of their policies for which we have today's "service economy."