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Baumol's cost disease does not apply if there is oversupply of labor. See again low-skilled workers. Where are the 'rises in pay' for those working at fast-foo

Baumol's cost disease does not apply if there is oversupply of labor. See again low-skilled workers. Where are the 'rises in pay' for those working at fast-food, supermarket chains, warehouses, etc.? Also, labor over-supply will only increase since not only immigration, but also automation will compete with workers. Automation and immigration can be good things, but only if we provide everyone with a basic income to put them in a position where they actually have a choice to work or not.

astrange 5y ago
> Baumol's cost disease does not apply if there is oversupply of labor. More or less purely a symptom of bad monetary policy the US stopped doing around 2018. > See again low-skilled workers. Where are the 'rises in pay' for those working at fast-food, supermarket chains, warehouses, etc.? They have increased significantly above inflation in the last year because we're in a full employment economy. (While other classes may have had pay losses depending on how much they spend on gas/used cars, the lowest quartile definitely hasn't.) > Also, labor over-supply will only increase since not only immigration, but also automation will compete with workers. If you noticed, Andrew Yang lost the election. His automation platform was a myth, caused by our previous non-full-employment economy - there is no actual situation where it can destroy jobs. Either it requires inputs, so there is work to do there, or it doesn't, so it's a perpetual motion machine. (You can tell "rich people fire everyone and replace them with robots" can't actually happen because it's basically the plot of The Fountainhead.) Another interesting theory about the myth is that it's an accounting artifact caused by Moore's law - if we report computer production in units of computation speed, that means each factory worker is producing a zillion 70s computers a second, which makes it look like they've been automated out of a job. Countries with less immigration and worse age demographics (Russia, China, Japan) may need to develop automation though, since they'll need someone to take care of all of our old people. We will hopefully continue allowing immigration from Africa, soon to be the only region still producing young people.
- MomoXenosaga 5y ago
  Australia's point system assures that you don't just let any useless immigrant in but only the ones with qualifications. In a highly advanced economy even a basic nurse has 4 years of training- and speak the language. We don't just need warm bodies.
  - astrange 5y ago
    Australia is so selective that 30% of the population is immigrants. Which is working for them (because immigration is good) but it's not actually selective. Most of that training is wasted. Doctors in the US have a lot of training because there's limited spots for residencies so only the top X can make it in, so there's an infinite amount of arbitrary prerequisites added on just to eliminate people.

astrange 5y ago

> Baumol's cost disease does not apply if there is oversupply of labor. More or less purely a symptom of bad monetary policy the US stopped doing around 2018. > See again low-skilled workers. Where are the 'rises in pay' for those working at fast-food, supermarket chains, warehouses, etc.? They have increased significantly above inflation in the last year because we're in a full employment economy. (While other classes may have had pay losses depending on how much they spend on gas/used cars, the lowest quartile definitely hasn't.) > Also, labor over-supply will only increase since not only immigration, but also automation will compete with workers. If you noticed, Andrew Yang lost the election. His automation platform was a myth, caused by our previous non-full-employment economy - there is no actual situation where it can destroy jobs. Either it requires inputs, so there is work to do there, or it doesn't, so it's a perpetual motion machine. (You can tell "rich people fire everyone and replace them with robots" can't actually happen because it's basically the plot of The Fountainhead.) Another interesting theory about the myth is that it's an accounting artifact caused by Moore's law - if we report computer production in units of computation speed, that means each factory worker is producing a zillion 70s computers a second, which makes it look like they've been automated out of a job. Countries with less immigration and worse age demographics (Russia, China, Japan) may need to develop automation though, since they'll need someone to take care of all of our old people. We will hopefully continue allowing immigration from Africa, soon to be the only region still producing young people.

MomoXenosaga 5y ago
Australia's point system assures that you don't just let any useless immigrant in but only the ones with qualifications. In a highly advanced economy even a basic nurse has 4 years of training- and speak the language. We don't just need warm bodies.
- astrange 5y ago
  Australia is so selective that 30% of the population is immigrants. Which is working for them (because immigration is good) but it's not actually selective. Most of that training is wasted. Doctors in the US have a lot of training because there's limited spots for residencies so only the top X can make it in, so there's an infinite amount of arbitrary prerequisites added on just to eliminate people.