Isn't high unemployment going to be the future as technology gets better.?

[Cletus]

"Shouldn't we we have a more robust social spending programs for when unemployment is at say 20% or higher. Especial when companies are using this technology to cut theirs cost and to make record high profits. "

Yes.



I would just add that we have always had an increase in technology, we have to find the room to employ more people, there is no other option. The argument that technology is putting people out of work has been made since the begining of the industrial revolution,.

[KevinC]

You are exactly right - that's structural unemployment. I'm going to go out on a limb and even say something bizarre: I think this economic crisis is the start of the end of "corporatism" -

To H@ll with corporations. They have shown how much they care about us so we should return the favor -- Don't buy anything from them if you can at all help it. Let's all be the masters of our own economic destiny and buy from our neighborhood stores. If we need to make a large purchase (car or appliance) buy restored, refurbished or used.

The idea was that as technology progressed, job displacement would occur but the workforce would be "re-absorbed" in other areas. Great, but it didn't happen -- the only thing *close* to it was more and more jobs became automated via software and computers. They don't need pilots to fly planes anymore; they don't need doctors, really. Nobody is really all that safe. Even manual labor isn't safe because people who normally would give manual laborers jobs are out of work.

I don't think social spending is going to do it.
No economic activity is "future proof" and nobody is going to decide for us when and what we're going to do with our energies that we can contribute.

Even jobs that "kill" jobs (office/small business automation) aren't safe - so it's really going to ultimately be up to *all* of us to decide our own futures.

[Romac]

Nope......high unemployment is the direct result of liberal policies.

[metfan1245]

That makes too much sense.

[ShaylayBourget]

No because machines will always need humans to fix them when there broke :P