Jobsolescence

Jobsolescence: why chronic unemployment is the new normal, and what to do about it

Introduction

We are faced now with chronic unemployment in all areas of society. What most people don't seem to realize is that "unemployment" isn't the problem; economic inequity is the problem, which high employment used to ameliorate to tolerable levels.

High employment is no longer an option. We have to change the way we think about economics, the way we allocate and distribute resources, because automation has completely transformed the reality of what work needs to be done.

The fact of the matter is that there simply isn't very much of it.

When this country was founded, and the ethical foundations of our culture were being worked out by our forebears, work was plentiful and people were scarce. Food was also scarce, but farmland was plentiful. As a result of these conditions, the Protestant "work ethic" was a formula for success, and became part of our cultural identity.

Discarded bits

The American economy did eventually recover from the 2007 crash, but unemployment stayed high.

This is merely the capstone on a series of events beginning sometime during the late Industrial Revolution

"Job creation" was the buzz-phrase of the elections in 2008, 2010, and 2012.

On the Right, "job creator" became a synonym for "large company" in order to justify continuing the failed policy of trickle-down economics. The Left, a bit more realistically, focused on the need for aid to the unemployed -- but even they regarded it as a temporary measure, a band-aid solution, while the Right considered even temporary measures as a gateway drug to "dependency" on "government hand-outs" (something they were all too willing to give to the aforementioned large corporations).