Spain Is Doomed: Why Austerity Is Destroying Europe

The Atlantic ^ | Apr 18 2012, 10:00 AM ET | Matthew O'Brien - Matthew O'Brien

[redgolum]

Friend, I probably do know what you are talking about, and mega factories with robots still doesn't solve the issue of what do you do with the majority of people who will not be supporting those robots.

Spain, and lets be honest the US, tried to have a nice welfare system. Of course that just attracted more and more people until the system collapses. Now, there really isn't much for them to do. There aren't enough jobs to fill all the unemployed (Spain is much worse than us here), and there aren't enough people with the right skills to do the higher IQ managing jobs that full automation would need.

I worked for a Spanish engineering firm, and many of them were hard working (and partying). The firm preferred to hire Americans because they didn't expect the same benefits as EU citizens did, and they could fire them at will.

Again, what do you do with the people who are not skilled enough to have much higher than a traditional farm or factory job? If we don't start thinking about that, and soon, we will either have a vast underclass of non workers or civil unrest like the world hasn't seen for a hundred years.

The population is a bell curve. We have been pushing the jobs further and further to one side without thinking about the consequences.

[Ramius]

You’ve really touched on a key issue. In the new economy that’s evolved over the last few decades... With massive shifts to automation, and an increasing “knowledge work” and “information economy” or whatever other buzzwords they’re throwing around these days... What it finally comes down to is that there is a growing portion of the population that is simply unemployable— permanently.

The world still needs ditch-diggers and sweepers, but it doesn’t need so many of them anymore. It’s a thorny problem, and I can’t say I know the answer.

[GOPJ]

This guy wants them to ‘charge’ more?

[cherry]

we can slowly get rid of govt employees thru attrition....we don't have to cut 50% of them, but what we must do is make a wide sweeping cutback in pay and benefits....say even a 10% cutback on wages, benefits....and even make the retired govt worker take a pay and benefit cut..

I'm just guessing but an immediate and wide spread cut of about 10% would probably keep the economy going, and a tax cut to boot would get the economy GROWING...JMO...