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My ignorant gut would be that greater portions of the workforce are replaceable with capital nowadays than in previous times. You want to hand manufacture more
by ethbro 7y ago
My ignorant gut would be that greater portions of the workforce are replaceable with capital nowadays than in previous times.
You want to hand manufacture more widgets, you need to hire more people.
I'd be curious if there's also a de facto inflection point, whereby decreasing requirements for broadly available labor limit wage gains, which stunts demand, which stunts additional labor and hiring.
Essentially: in a bifurcated economy demand and unemployment become less tightly coupled.
- cbanek 7y ago> greater portions of the workforce are replaceable with capital nowadays I totally agree. I think this is even something they intended. And the workforce parts that aren't capital are more serving the capital (running expensive machines) rather than the machines helping workers be more productive. People's jobs have been tailored around becoming replaceable widgets, where you want to be able to replace someone as fast as possible (with minimal training). But all this is basically saying the Phillips curve is dead. In that, lower unemployment doesn't lead to higher wages.