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We definitively do NOT have "too many workers". There are millions of jobs out there which are simply not getting done due to lack of a worker willing/able to d

We definitively do NOT have "too many workers". There are millions of jobs out there which are simply not getting done due to lack of a worker willing/able to do them, or due to regulations making the job illegal. https://www.chrisstucchio.com/blog/2016/robots_didnt_take_our_jobs.html https://www.chrisstucchio.com/blog/2016/robots_didnt_take_ou... We have "not enough jobs" when everyone who wants one has a butler, maid, cook and driver. (Or butlerbot, cleaning bot, autocook 2000 and self driving car.) That's not the world we live in today.

sbov 10y ago
Not every "job" is a job. I would totally pay someone $0.01 per hour to clean my house each day.
- yummyfajitas 10y ago
  Yes, that's a perfect illustration of labor scarcity. You want work done but it isn't getting done. Other work that isn't getting done: childcare for working women, fixing our crumbling infrastructure, building new public works - most left wing types have a massive laundry list of jobs that aren't getting done. Maybe those folks are just full of it and we shouldn't actually tax the rich to get those things done?
  - mac01021 10y ago
    You normally write very clearly, but I have no idea what you're getting at with this particular comment. Is any of this sarcasm? Are you sincerely suggesting that not being able to find someone to work for 1 cent per hour means that there is a labor scarcity? What's this business about public funding of municipal infrastructure and how does it relate to the conversation at hand?
    - dragonwriter 10y ago
      Scarcity means that a resource is limited and has an opportunity cost, so, yes, of there is any minimum cost, the resources is scarce.
      - mac01021 10y ago
        But people's time is always a limited resource. Even in a utopia where the cost of living comfortably is zero and people are immortal, spending an hour providing a service to another person carries an opportunity cost. So, under this definition there is always, almost tautologically, a scarcity of labor. The word has little meaning, and discussion of whether or not there is such a scarcity becomes irrelevant to decisions about things like public welfare or economic policy.
        dragonwriter 10y ago
        The irreducible nature of scarcity is pretty much an underpinning of all modern economic theory, right, and taking about it as a variable thing is usually nonsense, and often cover for talking about supply less (or, in the case of discussion of the absence of scarcity, meeting or beyond) one's personal preferences while dressing it up in language that tries to elevate those preferences to objectively privileged standards. The word has a clear and useful meaning, it's just not appropriate to many of the contexts where it is used specifically to obscure the subjective character of what people are describing when they use the term.
        deleted 10y ago
        [deleted]
        yummyfajitas 10y ago
        There is not, tautologically, a desire for labor. I do not desire human computation services at all (remember when "computer" was a job description) or the manual transportation of written information. You could charge me $0 for these services and I still won't buy any. These are actual jobs that have vanished and there is no scarcity of these services.
        10y ago

sbov 10y ago

Not every "job" is a job. I would totally pay someone $0.01 per hour to clean my house each day.

yummyfajitas 10y ago
Yes, that's a perfect illustration of labor scarcity. You want work done but it isn't getting done. Other work that isn't getting done: childcare for working women, fixing our crumbling infrastructure, building new public works - most left wing types have a massive laundry list of jobs that aren't getting done. Maybe those folks are just full of it and we shouldn't actually tax the rich to get those things done?
- mac01021 10y ago
  You normally write very clearly, but I have no idea what you're getting at with this particular comment. Is any of this sarcasm? Are you sincerely suggesting that not being able to find someone to work for 1 cent per hour means that there is a labor scarcity? What's this business about public funding of municipal infrastructure and how does it relate to the conversation at hand?
  - dragonwriter 10y ago
    Scarcity means that a resource is limited and has an opportunity cost, so, yes, of there is any minimum cost, the resources is scarce.
    - mac01021 10y ago
      But people's time is always a limited resource. Even in a utopia where the cost of living comfortably is zero and people are immortal, spending an hour providing a service to another person carries an opportunity cost. So, under this definition there is always, almost tautologically, a scarcity of labor. The word has little meaning, and discussion of whether or not there is such a scarcity becomes irrelevant to decisions about things like public welfare or economic policy.
      - dragonwriter 10y ago
        The irreducible nature of scarcity is pretty much an underpinning of all modern economic theory, right, and taking about it as a variable thing is usually nonsense, and often cover for talking about supply less (or, in the case of discussion of the absence of scarcity, meeting or beyond) one's personal preferences while dressing it up in language that tries to elevate those preferences to objectively privileged standards. The word has a clear and useful meaning, it's just not appropriate to many of the contexts where it is used specifically to obscure the subjective character of what people are describing when they use the term.
      - deleted 10y ago
        [deleted]
      - yummyfajitas 10y ago
        There is not, tautologically, a desire for labor. I do not desire human computation services at all (remember when "computer" was a job description) or the manual transportation of written information. You could charge me $0 for these services and I still won't buy any. These are actual jobs that have vanished and there is no scarcity of these services.
        10y ago