The REAL Cause of Unemployment - ATMs

[Longermonger]

Originally Posted by SinsOfTheFlesh

One also has to factor in new jobs created by technology that make us more productive overall. So automation has destroyed jobs in nearly every aspect of the job market, from factory workers replaced by a machine to bank tellers, grocery store retailers, etc.

On the other hand, freeing upDonald Trump voice ON: You're Freed up! workers who work in low end, low productivity jobs is necessary to have a workforce ready and availableAka UNEMPLOYED to produce higher end, high tech goods. If our workers were still sitting at looms making textiles, they wouldn't be able to produce computers, blackberries etc. ...and I'd be able to buy a fucking pair of Levi's made in the U.S. Of fuckin' A. MFW Blackberries are made in the USA. RIM is based in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.

The point that is being missed here is that the challenge we face today is innovating the next generation of technology so that our workers remain, as they have been since our nation's founding, on the cutting edge of technology.

We weren't on the cutting edge of technology in 1776. We're great because our land has resources (coal, oil, iron, lumber, gold, silver, corn, wheat...shit like that.). There isn't room for everyone on the cutting edge anyway. We need manufacturing jobs as well like Germany. THEY are on the cutting edge yet manufacture automobiles, tools, blades, ships, watches, etc.

China is beating us with cheap labor. That labor has to eat. We have the food. Double the price of food. Problem solved?

[JD Barleycorn]

I had someone explain basic economics one time. At one time you hired 20 men to dig a ditch to lay pipe in. They worked 10 hours a day and each man dug 10 feet of ditch four feet deep. If you want to lay 1000 feet of pipe you need these men to work five days and you have to pay them for 1000 hours of labor. One day a guy shows up with a mechanical shovel on a trailer. He says he can dig the same 1000 feet in two days and he wants twenty times what a normal ditch digger gets. So the boss can get the job done faster and cheaper (1000 hrs of pay versus 400 hours of pay). He can still hire a couple of clean up guys for the normal rate. The shovel guy has to pay for his fuel, his mechanic, and his transportation. He also had to buy the shovel which had to be built. So the shovel owner is creating jobs and the owner is getting the job done faster. Unfortunately 18 guys are out of work. Do you blame the owner? Do you blame the shovel owner? Can you blame the guys who are incapable or unwilling to learn to become mechanics or truck drivers? They can still learn to lay bricks or nail boards together. They can find someone who wants to work slower digging ditches.
Business is not a social program. It is there to produce and make money. Government makes social programs. Iraq would have been a wonderful place to hire 20 men to dig a ditch but we brought in modern equipment the average Iraq couldn't run nor knew how to fix. That is one fault I lay at the feet of the Bush administration.

[JD Barleycorn]

Factories today have to find a way to cut costs and much of that cost is the work force. That is more than pay checks. It is also unemployment insurance, healthcare insurance, workers compensation, environmental, habitability, HR, and even drug programs. Some places offer more like 401Ks and advisors for health and finances. A business tries to get by with as few workers as possible but being mindful that is they have success, more work follows which requires either overtime or more workers. Economic uncertainty that we feel right now makes owners fearful of hiring new workers which may have to be laid off in a few months. Every worker hired costs a company a few thousand dollars even before they earn the company one dollar with background checks, drug tests, and the process to hire them. This government could help the economy by getting rid of the uncertainty. Freeze all and any new EPA regulations. Require the EPA to do what they require business to do, that is do the paperwork showing how many jobs will be lost for any new regulation. Factory owners have to submit environmental impact statements. Have the EPA produce job impact statements. Ditto for OSHA and any new regulation. Overturn Obamacare. It is obvious that is will cost more than we were told and business is going to take it in the shorts. Stop any and all changed to the tax code for the next five years unless it is to repeal any taxes. Yes, that means keep the "big Bush tax cuts for the wealthy" if that is what you want to call them. Also stop the bailouts. Our companies are big boys. Let them walk on their own and maybe the stock holders will hold the CEOs accountable for failure.
It has now become a question of survival for this country.

[deacon]

jesus jd..dont start making sense. here comes the namecalling. you are spot on and a fair man.

[CuteOldGuy]

Longer, seriously, you must realize that big business (corporations) and government are one and the same. We need to restore capitalism to the US, and get rid of the corporate fascism we now have (and have had for at least 60 years, possibly longer). Our current laws do not disturb the status quo, or threaten the control big business has on government. The system needs a complete review and overhaul, and corporate and government leaders placed on trial. It's not going to happen, so we will have to endure ever quickening loss of liberty, and complete control by the corporate/government complex.