Quote:
Originally posted by filtherton
I know. I'm currently benefitting from yet another year of tuition increases. The price of gas is up. Rent? Up.
My question is: At what point to productivity increases start to become a bad thing for the average american? Is it possible for the u.s. to become so productive that we only need half of the workforce? What does the other half do? I know it seems like a stretch, but at what point is employment more important than productivity?
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Tuition increases are an entirely different matter. I don't know of a single person who didn't see tuition increases while in college in the US.
The second part is an interesting question and would take quite a bit of study to fully answer. A phd dissertation could easily be made of it.
A couple of reasons why productivity increases are unlikely to permanently decrease labor needs:
1.Productivity varies widely across industries, so it will be quite a while before productivity could be increased enough across the board to affect a permanent shift in employment.
2. New industries crop up constantly. How many people were employed in the computer industry 20 years ago? The internet 10 years ago? The car industry a 100 years ago? So long as new industries continue to crop up, it's unlikely that productivity gains can outstrip demand for labor over the long term.