5 ms·

It's Good Jobs, Stupid

28 points by intrepidhero 6y ago

ConcernedCoder 6y ago
For what it's worth, the light colored text on white background makes it harder than necessary for me the read the already tiny letters... sorry.
- jschveibinz 6y ago
  Textise.net will save the day! https://www.textise.net/showText.aspx?strURL=https%253A//econfip.org/policy-brief/its-good-jobs-stupid/ https://www.textise.net/showText.aspx?strURL=https%253A//eco...
  - textman 6y ago
    Is what textise.net does legal? I thought copying another website's content and putting it on your own was a copyright infringement.
- vulcan01 6y ago
  Reader mode can also help with these kinds of poorly-chosen text colours.
raiyu 6y ago
The 1950s and 60s were great in America because Europe was decimated in WWII, heavy industry was alive and well, the population was growing, the government was helping GIs with housing loans and college, and imports and global trade had not yet taken hold. Fast forward and globalization has moved production else where, population growth compared to Nordic countries is massive, there are a multitude of factors at play.
- timoth3y 6y ago
  I hear the bit about America having the world to themselves trade-wise a lot from Americans, but it's not really true. Both Western Europe and capitalist Asia (Japan, Singapore, South Korea) also had near full employment with quality jobs during this period. It was not a US-only phenomenon. It was global. The US was exporting more, but it was also importing more. As were many other countries.
  - ameister14 6y ago
    >Both Western Europe and capitalist Asia (Japan, Singapore, South Korea) also had near full employment with quality jobs during this period. That seems off to me right away, because the major investment in South Korea didn't come until later. Certainly not in the 50's. In the mid 60's South Korea was still going through shifts towards industrialization.
    - andi999 6y ago
      Also Singapore was not well in the 50s and 60s. It got full independence in 1965, and (from the speech of Lee Kuan Yew), erratic electricity, only half of the population access to sewage system. The economy picked up only afterwards.
- maxerickson 6y ago
  We've had 40 years of failed supply side economics in the US. Let us now try the theory that demand drives the economy just as much or more than supply. (This means favoring policies that increase pay across broad swaths of the population vs favoring policies that benefit businesses over workers)
sacomo 6y ago
Shared prosperity requires shared equity. We need more worker-owned enterprises.
- gnusty_gnurc 6y ago
  > Shared prosperity requires shared equity That's just a platitude. The question is what conditions give rise to prosperity. > The real driver of growth rested in the free citizen, the ability to conduct commerce, to trade freely, to invent and innovate, to compete in the open marketplace. She argues that the ability to freely work and test ideas in a market creates massive enrichment in a decentralized and undirected way that spills-over for everyone. Read Deirdre McCloskey and her work that details what she calls the Great Enrichment. > McCloskey provides evidence that the average global GDP per capita from 1820 to 1992 increased by a factor of almost 800%. For countries like the United States that fully embraced liberal values that number is closer to 1600%. Countries like Russia, with greater size and natural resources, pales in comparison because its people are not free. Prosperity is furthered when more and more people are able to participate in the marketplace and when they can bring their talents and ideas to the world.
- m0llusk 6y ago
  That is my reaction also. Quality engagement with society that yields a good income. That almost certainly involves work, but very likely in an independent context such that there is no job as such. It also makes sense that instead of the usual mix of products or services individuals will increasingly enter into licensing agreements that best market what they have to offer and provide income over significant periods of time without a lot or even any direct involvement. Factoring companies and jobs out of the equation can potentially make work both more efficient and rewarding.
- nradov 6y ago
  How would you propose to make that happen? Most enterprises require more capital than workers can supply.
  - toomuchtodo 6y ago
draw_down 6y ago
> wealth taxes, universal basic income, single-payer health insurance, and free college for all, are now on the agenda I disagree, absolutely none of these will happen in foreseeable future, at least in the USA. “High” marginal tax rates is subjective.
anonuser123456 6y ago
This is just magical thinking. You can’t have high paying jobs unless firms have high productivity from their employees. No one knows how to create highly productive employees from thin air. If they did... they would be doing it! Does anyone really believe that capital is scarce? And there is a natural experiment demonstrating what happens in a low productivity, high wage industry: healthcare. Do we really want to turn all on industry into the tapeworm that is healthcare in the IS healthcare industry?

28 points by intrepidhero 6y ago

For what it's worth, the light colored text on white background makes it harder than necessary for me the read the already tiny letters... sorry.

jschveibinz 6y ago
Textise.net will save the day! https://www.textise.net/showText.aspx?strURL=https%253A//econfip.org/policy-brief/its-good-jobs-stupid/ https://www.textise.net/showText.aspx?strURL=https%253A//eco...
- textman 6y ago
  Is what textise.net does legal? I thought copying another website's content and putting it on your own was a copyright infringement.
vulcan01 6y ago
Reader mode can also help with these kinds of poorly-chosen text colours.

raiyu 6y ago

The 1950s and 60s were great in America because Europe was decimated in WWII, heavy industry was alive and well, the population was growing, the government was helping GIs with housing loans and college, and imports and global trade had not yet taken hold. Fast forward and globalization has moved production else where, population growth compared to Nordic countries is massive, there are a multitude of factors at play.

timoth3y 6y ago
I hear the bit about America having the world to themselves trade-wise a lot from Americans, but it's not really true. Both Western Europe and capitalist Asia (Japan, Singapore, South Korea) also had near full employment with quality jobs during this period. It was not a US-only phenomenon. It was global. The US was exporting more, but it was also importing more. As were many other countries.
- ameister14 6y ago
  >Both Western Europe and capitalist Asia (Japan, Singapore, South Korea) also had near full employment with quality jobs during this period. That seems off to me right away, because the major investment in South Korea didn't come until later. Certainly not in the 50's. In the mid 60's South Korea was still going through shifts towards industrialization.
  - andi999 6y ago
    Also Singapore was not well in the 50s and 60s. It got full independence in 1965, and (from the speech of Lee Kuan Yew), erratic electricity, only half of the population access to sewage system. The economy picked up only afterwards.
maxerickson 6y ago
We've had 40 years of failed supply side economics in the US. Let us now try the theory that demand drives the economy just as much or more than supply. (This means favoring policies that increase pay across broad swaths of the population vs favoring policies that benefit businesses over workers)

sacomo 6y ago

Shared prosperity requires shared equity. We need more worker-owned enterprises.

gnusty_gnurc 6y ago
> Shared prosperity requires shared equity That's just a platitude. The question is what conditions give rise to prosperity. > The real driver of growth rested in the free citizen, the ability to conduct commerce, to trade freely, to invent and innovate, to compete in the open marketplace. She argues that the ability to freely work and test ideas in a market creates massive enrichment in a decentralized and undirected way that spills-over for everyone. Read Deirdre McCloskey and her work that details what she calls the Great Enrichment. > McCloskey provides evidence that the average global GDP per capita from 1820 to 1992 increased by a factor of almost 800%. For countries like the United States that fully embraced liberal values that number is closer to 1600%. Countries like Russia, with greater size and natural resources, pales in comparison because its people are not free. Prosperity is furthered when more and more people are able to participate in the marketplace and when they can bring their talents and ideas to the world.
m0llusk 6y ago
That is my reaction also. Quality engagement with society that yields a good income. That almost certainly involves work, but very likely in an independent context such that there is no job as such. It also makes sense that instead of the usual mix of products or services individuals will increasingly enter into licensing agreements that best market what they have to offer and provide income over significant periods of time without a lot or even any direct involvement. Factoring companies and jobs out of the equation can potentially make work both more efficient and rewarding.
nradov 6y ago
How would you propose to make that happen? Most enterprises require more capital than workers can supply.
- toomuchtodo 6y ago

draw_down 6y ago

> wealth taxes, universal basic income, single-payer health insurance, and free college for all, are now on the agenda I disagree, absolutely none of these will happen in foreseeable future, at least in the USA. “High” marginal tax rates is subjective.

anonuser123456 6y ago

This is just magical thinking. You can’t have high paying jobs unless firms have high productivity from their employees. No one knows how to create highly productive employees from thin air. If they did... they would be doing it! Does anyone really believe that capital is scarce? And there is a natural experiment demonstrating what happens in a low productivity, high wage industry: healthcare. Do we really want to turn all on industry into the tapeworm that is healthcare in the IS healthcare industry?