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I keep saying this over and over and over to my more "the market will figure it out" co-workers and I just can't seem to get through to them. This is literally

I keep saying this over and over and over to my more "the market will figure it out" co-workers and I just can't seem to get through to them. This is literally more than 20% unemployment in less than 5 years. Society will either crumble or completely change how it views unemployment.

djrogers 10y ago
> This is literally more than 20% unemployment in less than 5 years First of all - what? It's not 20%, nor is it happening in 5 years... Neither of those numbers make any sense. Secondly, accuracy aside, the same arguments were made all through the 70s, 80s, and 90s about manufacturing automation. And guess what, those jobs are gone now, but society didn't crumble. It's not like his is all brand new people - it's happened over and over again for the past 200 years. Read your history, and realize that we will repeat it.
- mabbo 10y ago
  The 20% figure isn't actually that crazy. A small town near where I grew up had a factory- Hershey chocolate- that supported maybe 20% of the jobs in the town. But it represented how 50% or more of the money entered the town. That money bounced around, creating jobs- stores, restaurants, even gas stations and hotels. When the factory closed, everything was hit. A small town with few sources of external income can be devastated by the loss of a major one. A huge percentage of America is small towns, and a large portion of them have truckers as their income. Yes, they economy will recover, but if this automation happens very quickly there can and will be collateral damage. I'm still for it happening, but the government would be wise to start preparing for the fallout now.
- unprepare 10y ago
  >And guess what, those jobs are gone now, but society didn't crumble. I wouldn't say the loss of manufacturing jobs has been particularly well absorbed, in fact i would argue that we are still trying to deal with the effect this loss has had on our economy.
- 0xffff2 10y ago
  >... those jobs are gone now, but society didn't crumble. Society where I live in California didn't, but the stories I read about Detroit and Baltimore make me wonder how society is doing in large parts of the country where manufacturing used to be a major employer.

djrogers 10y ago

> This is literally more than 20% unemployment in less than 5 years First of all - what? It's not 20%, nor is it happening in 5 years... Neither of those numbers make any sense. Secondly, accuracy aside, the same arguments were made all through the 70s, 80s, and 90s about manufacturing automation. And guess what, those jobs are gone now, but society didn't crumble. It's not like his is all brand new people - it's happened over and over again for the past 200 years. Read your history, and realize that we will repeat it.

mabbo 10y ago
The 20% figure isn't actually that crazy. A small town near where I grew up had a factory- Hershey chocolate- that supported maybe 20% of the jobs in the town. But it represented how 50% or more of the money entered the town. That money bounced around, creating jobs- stores, restaurants, even gas stations and hotels. When the factory closed, everything was hit. A small town with few sources of external income can be devastated by the loss of a major one. A huge percentage of America is small towns, and a large portion of them have truckers as their income. Yes, they economy will recover, but if this automation happens very quickly there can and will be collateral damage. I'm still for it happening, but the government would be wise to start preparing for the fallout now.
unprepare 10y ago
>And guess what, those jobs are gone now, but society didn't crumble. I wouldn't say the loss of manufacturing jobs has been particularly well absorbed, in fact i would argue that we are still trying to deal with the effect this loss has had on our economy.
0xffff2 10y ago
>... those jobs are gone now, but society didn't crumble. Society where I live in California didn't, but the stories I read about Detroit and Baltimore make me wonder how society is doing in large parts of the country where manufacturing used to be a major employer.