The basic assumption that jobs will eventually...

The basic assumption that jobs will eventually return when the economy recovers is probably wrong. Some jobs will come back, of course. But the reality that no one wants to talk about is a structural change in the economy that’s been going on for years but which the Great Recession has dramatically accelerated. Under the pressure of this awful recession, many companies have found ways to cut their payrolls for good. They’ve discovered that new software and computer technologies have made workers in Asia and Latin America just about as productive as Americans, and that the Internet allows far more work to be efficiently outsourced abroad. This means many Americans won’t be rehired unless they’re willing to settle for much lower wages and benefits. Today’s official unemployment numbers hide the extent to which Americans are already on this path. Among those with jobs, a large and growing number have had to accept lower pay as a condition for keeping them. Or they’ve lost higher-paying jobs and are now in a new ones that pays less. Yet reducing unemployment by cutting wages merely exchanges one problem for another. We’ll get jobs back but have more people working for pay they consider inadequate, more working families at or near poverty, and widening inequality.

Robert Reich (via azspot) (via robot-heart-politics) (via asprettyasasong)

Finally someone says it.

(via mikehudack)

This is absolutely wrong. Increased efficiency in production doesn’t reduce jobs, it dramatically increases jobs. The same applies to outsourced labor. Outsourcing labor decreases the price of manufacturing, makes it less risky, and increases the number of manufacturers while decreasing the cost of living.

This is basic Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith stuff. Come on. It’s covered in the very first chapter.

(via allang)

Absolutely. In the long term. The short term — the realignment — has the potential to be very painful.

(via mikehudack)

azspot