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That last quoted paragraph nails it and if you look a bit deeper as to why, you have to blame all the policies they created to 'help the worker' when all it really did was make that worker more expensive.

I don't remember who wrote the editorial on high productivity and low employment, but it gave the example of gas station attendants. I (barely) remember when, if you pulled into a gas station, a small army would come out and get busy checking the tires, cleaning the windshield, checking the oil and filling the tank. Now? Who could afford to run a business like that? All self serve.

If to hire someone, I have to take on all of their medical costs and their retirement for the rest of their life, in addition to workman's comp, SS, etc. etc., plus deal with the paperwork, how much productivity do I need to get out of that person to make hiring them worth it?

And how did all of that become my responsibility when all I'm doing is paying them to help me build widgets? Has public education made us so stupid we can't take care of ourselves any more?

And, if I was wrong about them and this person absolutely sucks and is hurting my business, how much does it then cost me to make them go away, assuming I still can fire them? How much of a case do I need to build to avoid or win the lawsuit?

I'm exaggerating, but not by much and not for much longer since we seem to be embracing the progressive European model. It's no way to run a country unless you are trying to run off business and run the country into the ground.

That's the issue I've been harping on lately -- productivity is up, but employment is down. We don't need workers the way we used to. It happened in agriculture. It happened in manufacturing. Our country has a lot of "stuff" but a reduced need for workers. It's not an easy problem to solve -- and if chronic unemployment is 20% or 30%, then the likely solution is more socialism: lots of people sitting at home waiting for their government check, because no one needs their labor.

The end result is a great mass of very unemployable people. No education, no skills, no work history, no work habits, no discipline. They have nothing to offer.

I see this as one of the biggest issues facing the country, but I don't see a lot of people talking about it.