When Work Disappears: What do we do with people whose livelihoods are destroyed? (Left waking-up?)

The Daily Beast ^ | June 14, 2013 | Megan McArdle

[2ndDivisionVet]

Paul Krugman has a column today on a topic you don't normally get much of from economists: sympathy for the Luddites. Back in 2001, when I sat in on my last formal economics class, this was about as daring a proposition as "Sympathy for the Devil" was as an album title.

---snip---

But I have started worrying about what's taking place at the bottom of the economy. In much of the industrial world, it seems to be increasingly difficult for people to earn a decent living without a fairly elite set of skills--or an elite set of credentials that mimic skills, like a BA in English Literature from an Ivy League institution. The ability to earn a decent living, either yourself or as part of a family, is one of the basic criteria for a decent life. (And yes, before you ask: I think trust funds can be just as toxic as lifetime welfare benefits.)

---snip---

For starters, it is politically difficult to imagine a really large class of people who simply permanently live off the state. The safety net is rooted in human instincts about reciprocal exchange. Of course, it isn't all that reciprocal--the majority of people who are net taxpayers are extremely unlikely to collect much in the way of food stamps, TANF, or even unemployment insurance. Nonetheless, the moral arguments are founded in the premise that these benefits are for emergencies, and anyone can have an emergency. They will lose political support if you have one group of people paying taxes, and a different group of people who can expect to live their entire life on the dole.

Such an arrangement would also be socially toxic....

[Cringing Negativism Network]

Thanks for your support.

China has a (wildly) stacked trade deck.

We need to force China back out of our markets.

Now.

Bring back American products, and American jobs.

[Nowhere Man]

I remember 30 years ago, "made in China" was just starting but still very rare. I know we had back then, "Made in Tiawan, Japan, Hong Kong" and so on but Red China undercut all of them in the 1990's to what we have now. They are selling us the rope to hang ourselves with. I know it is a tal order, but we all must try not to buy anything made there (I know I have failed in that pledge too at times, it is very hard) or at least try the best we can. It is a downward spiral as well, as this Depression rolls on, the only thing "affordable" to a permanent underclass is Red Chinese goods. It is the proverbial snake eating its tail.

We need to bring the boys (and girls) home from the Middle East, quit supporting the Islamists in Syria and work on the economy and security of the U.S. along with our borders.

[dennisw]

“Made in Tiawan, Japan, Hong Kong”>>>>>

At least while letting them grab our manufacturing jobs, they were and are allies. Same for South Korea but China is somewhere between an enemy and an economic rival and now we do idiotic, job killing free trade with them

[SamAdams76]

If I was to brew a keg of beer each day and sell 165 twelve-oz cups for $3 each, I'd be grossing $500 a day with a 60 percent margin ($300) as it would only cost me about $200 in raw ingredients and red plastic Solo cups in which to dispense my product.

That would provide me with a very decent living as I'd be making $2100 per week or $110,000 per year.

But I would definitely get arrested in this United States.

[familyop]

The phone was used and was ordered through Ebay. The plan is a PagePlus prepay.

[VeniVidiVici]

Oh, and to add insult to injury, the owners are walking away from their business not with a decent pay-off, but thousands of dollars in debt. FUBO!

Wasn't it that other famous communist, Hillary Clinton, that said she couldn't be responsible for every undercapitalized business in America?

Your friends losing their business is simply another step down that glorious road to Communism!

[roadcat]

I’ll never forget when the cash register was broke at some store. She had to use a calculator to get the change right instead of counting up. I tried to explain it to her but you’d think I was explaining brain surgery.

It's so sad, seeing the destruction of our education system. Back in the 1950's, we were taught to use slide rules, but you had to know the basics of math to utilize them. Now kids are taught calculators, without understanding the principles they operate on. I'm proud of my kids, who embraced the idea of learning the basics behind the tools they use. They told me that all you needed to pass and graduate from schools today is to show up breathing. Schools don't teach real-world skills, unless you count how to use a prophylactic rubber.

[central_va]

I am talking about selling simple hot dogs to make my point about the strangle hold govt has over the people. I get your point but it is a little different with beer.

[a fool in paradise]

If American workers were willing to work for market costs, not expecting some magical bonus just for being American, the jobs would stay here. But Americans insist on safe workplaces as well as higher wages, without providing proportionally more productivity. Why should an employer be expected to subsidize them? Why should a, say German, consumer be expected to pay extra when they can get a better value elsewhere???

F YOU man, I do NOT want or expect or deserve to be paid a mere $12 an hour for a college degreed engineering profession.

Let's open the borders for $6 an hour factory workers and let the borders open to all imports without tarriffs.

I do not appreciate being emailed a lengthy bitchy email stream.

Say it in public in the forum where everyone can deservedly tear apart your "it's only worth what it is worth to the corporations".

[longtermmemmory]

what happens when full automation makes any mass manufacturing not needed?

3d printing eliminats factory labor jobs.

True Robots?

what do you do with so many “extra” workers?

[central_va]

what happens when full automation makes any mass manufacturing not needed? 3d printing eliminats factory labor jobs. True Robots? what do you do with so many “extra” workers?

Not sure, but what I am sure about I want that automated factory in the USA. The labor cost BS excuse for offshoring goes completely away.

[Nowhere Man]

At least while letting them grab our manufacturing jobs, they were and are allies. Same for South Korea but China is somewhere between an enemy and an economic rival and now we do idiotic, job killing free trade with them

True, IO do see Red China as an enemy, I do fear we will get into a war with them if they don't suffer a collapse of their own. I think at one time, they will even turn on the Russians and we might have to fight them together.