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From the article: >Overall, though, technology is eliminating far more jobs than it is creating. I agree, Technology has and is a great innovator and has creat

From the article: >Overall, though, technology is eliminating far more jobs than it is creating. I agree, Technology has and is a great innovator and has created a lot of jobs. But when you begin reducing the number of low-effort jobs, what do you do with the people that used to be employed? It's a fact of averages that 50% of people are below the 100 IQ line - it seems that the new world economy has no place for them.

AnthonyMouse 14y ago
>It's a fact of averages that 50% of people are below the 100 IQ line - it seems that the new world economy has no place for them. There is always work if you're willing to accept the pay. What we need to do is make sure that the benefits of automation go to reducing real consumer prices rather than corporate profits, so that the meager pay commanded by menial jobs is still enough to make a living. The problem is corporations don't want to accept what that means: We would have to heavily subsidize alternative energy to sustainably reduce energy costs, which would "harm" the oil industry. We would have to subsidize (more) the construction of housing, which would "harm" the housing market, also known as making housing more affordable. So they lobby against it. What has to happen is that profitable industries that make their profits from poor consumers have to be less profitable, so that the poor can keep more of their money. That's pretty much what it comes down to.
- eli_gottlieb 14y ago
  Hey, don't forget to heap the appropriate blame on the middle classes, to whom suburban quarter-acre housing is the most common form of investment and savings for retirement. There ought to be a watch-word: treating a durable good as an investment leads to bubbles.
  - AnthonyMouse 14y ago
    I don't blame the middle class for responding to market signals created by stupid policies. We effectively exempted home price appreciation from capital gains tax for middle class families, made mortgage interest tax deductible and created a whole slew of other tax deductions for home owners, and then offered up all the money you would care to borrow at a low interest rate. How did they expect people to respond to that? They did the complete opposite of what they should have done to achieve the policy goals they intended. If you want more people to own homes, you don't give people money to buy homes -- doing that causes an enormous chunk of the money to go toward just bidding up the prices on existing homes. What you should do is to build more homes. Subsidize new home construction and (especially) the construction of new high density housing in urban areas. Increase the supply, the price comes down, and more people can afford to buy a home or a condo.

AnthonyMouse 14y ago

>It's a fact of averages that 50% of people are below the 100 IQ line - it seems that the new world economy has no place for them. There is always work if you're willing to accept the pay. What we need to do is make sure that the benefits of automation go to reducing real consumer prices rather than corporate profits, so that the meager pay commanded by menial jobs is still enough to make a living. The problem is corporations don't want to accept what that means: We would have to heavily subsidize alternative energy to sustainably reduce energy costs, which would "harm" the oil industry. We would have to subsidize (more) the construction of housing, which would "harm" the housing market, also known as making housing more affordable. So they lobby against it. What has to happen is that profitable industries that make their profits from poor consumers have to be less profitable, so that the poor can keep more of their money. That's pretty much what it comes down to.

eli_gottlieb 14y ago
Hey, don't forget to heap the appropriate blame on the middle classes, to whom suburban quarter-acre housing is the most common form of investment and savings for retirement. There ought to be a watch-word: treating a durable good as an investment leads to bubbles.
- AnthonyMouse 14y ago
  I don't blame the middle class for responding to market signals created by stupid policies. We effectively exempted home price appreciation from capital gains tax for middle class families, made mortgage interest tax deductible and created a whole slew of other tax deductions for home owners, and then offered up all the money you would care to borrow at a low interest rate. How did they expect people to respond to that? They did the complete opposite of what they should have done to achieve the policy goals they intended. If you want more people to own homes, you don't give people money to buy homes -- doing that causes an enormous chunk of the money to go toward just bidding up the prices on existing homes. What you should do is to build more homes. Subsidize new home construction and (especially) the construction of new high density housing in urban areas. Increase the supply, the price comes down, and more people can afford to buy a home or a condo.