[ClearCase_guy]

I continue to think we are heading for a post-scarcity society. We produce tons of food. We have discovered a great deal of US energy. Both manufacturing and service jobs are now being automated. 3D printing will make many products available to people simply, cheaply, and with almost no infrastructure.

320 million Americans -- exactly how many of them are capable of providing really useful labor? And how much actual labor does society really need??

I think (like it or not) "work" is not going to be be an option for a large chunk of society. We really do need to think about social and psychological aspects of that. If nothing else, we should look to Ferguson and ask, "Are a lot of bored, angry people with nothing useful to do a good thing to have?"

I support the idea of exploring what to do with people who are flat-out unemployed. Forever.

[Sicvee]

I also wonder what would happen if we had vastly improved education at the high school level and people instilled with a desire to work and make their own way in the world. Under current conditions there certainly would not be enough actual jobs to go around. But if we had freer markets, no Obamacare, less regulation and fewer incentives for idleness, would we be able to employ significantly more people? I have some doubts. How does it work in Hong Kong?

[EBH]

No need to explore the idea...Royal Meeker under Woodrow Wilson already determined what to do with them and why we (the elites) need a minimum wage...neither have anything to do with teaching people the value of a work ethic/creativity.

“It is much better to enact a minimum-wage law even if it deprives these unfortunates of work… better that the state should support the inefficient wholly and prevent the multiplication of the breed than subsidize incompetence and unthrift, enabling them to bring forth more of their kind.” - Royal Meeker, U.S. Commissioner of Labor, under Woodrow Wilson