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Prosperity Comes from Eliminating Jobs, Not Saving Them

2 points by whack 7y ago

sharemywin 7y ago
The question is who's going to foot the bill for the 55 year old coal miner that's job gets eliminated. Or the 55 year old Cobol programmer. or name your favorite current programming paradigm in a few years. Most people are paid basically enough to survive may be support a family. Also, a lot of people don't want office jobs. And just about everyone advocating for "free markets" don't want to invest in people, just assets.
- dragonwriter 7y ago
  > The question is who's going to foot the bill for the 55 year old coal miner that's job gets eliminated That, and your other questions, are the important questions that noise about saving legacy jobs distracts from. And mostly it's just noise; the people arguing against those who dare to talk about how to manage the transition with fantasies about avoiding it altogether invariably fail to save the jobs, they just prevent the creation of structures to assure that some of the gains from the transition go to ease the effects on those displaced.
- whack 7y ago
  > But these are all problems that can be addressed by public policy. Unemployment benefits can cushion the short-term blow to the newly unemployed. A higher minimum-wage or earned-income-tax-credit can help those with lower paying jobs. And a more progressive tax system can prevent any rise in income inequality.
pmdulaney 7y ago
This is my first time at outlookzen.com as far as I know. My first impression: A rather incongruous (in my experience) juxtaposition of conservative ideology with use of the word "zen".
- whack 7y ago
  > "But these are all problems that can be addressed by public policy. Unemployment benefits can cushion the short-term blow to the newly unemployed. A higher minimum-wage or earned-income-tax-credit can help those with lower paying jobs. And a more progressive tax system can prevent any rise in income inequality." That doesn't sound particularly "conservative" to me

2 points by whack 7y ago

The question is who's going to foot the bill for the 55 year old coal miner that's job gets eliminated. Or the 55 year old Cobol programmer. or name your favorite current programming paradigm in a few years. Most people are paid basically enough to survive may be support a family. Also, a lot of people don't want office jobs. And just about everyone advocating for "free markets" don't want to invest in people, just assets.

dragonwriter 7y ago
> The question is who's going to foot the bill for the 55 year old coal miner that's job gets eliminated That, and your other questions, are the important questions that noise about saving legacy jobs distracts from. And mostly it's just noise; the people arguing against those who dare to talk about how to manage the transition with fantasies about avoiding it altogether invariably fail to save the jobs, they just prevent the creation of structures to assure that some of the gains from the transition go to ease the effects on those displaced.
whack 7y ago
> But these are all problems that can be addressed by public policy. Unemployment benefits can cushion the short-term blow to the newly unemployed. A higher minimum-wage or earned-income-tax-credit can help those with lower paying jobs. And a more progressive tax system can prevent any rise in income inequality.

pmdulaney 7y ago

This is my first time at outlookzen.com as far as I know. My first impression: A rather incongruous (in my experience) juxtaposition of conservative ideology with use of the word "zen".

whack 7y ago
> "But these are all problems that can be addressed by public policy. Unemployment benefits can cushion the short-term blow to the newly unemployed. A higher minimum-wage or earned-income-tax-credit can help those with lower paying jobs. And a more progressive tax system can prevent any rise in income inequality." That doesn't sound particularly "conservative" to me