I think there will be jobs for those with specialized knowledge or refined skills for some time. The jobs will change with "automation" just as carpenters saw with the advent of power tools, adhesives, newer jointing solutions, etc. That makes them more productive and valuable, and so it goes for the new changes already under way. "Hourly" pay should increase and the work week should shrink. Thus even with high productivity something like 2 jobs could be split into 3 with a good wage for all and more leisure time or room for family or even a sideline business. So even if the "demand pie" doesn't grow, the productivity rewards should help raise living standards while making more room for additional players. No that probably doesn't do a lot for the bootblack or the fast food worker, but even housekeepers should be able to profit from productivity increases through technology. Non-professional health care services below skilled nursing level as well. Think of each human worker as the foreman of a team of "bots." And with proper direction we can make these new devices repairable, creating a whole 'nother spectrum of jobs in service, repair, and refurbishing. Then there is the educational system improvements needed to train and retrain workers for this world. But I really think "job splitting" is part of the answer, raising pay by clawing back productivity gains while cutting hours per week per worker.
I guess I think there must be better answers than socialism or a massive welfare state populated by the lilies of the field.
I don't necessarily agree with you, @Jacob Petersheim, but I'll give you a "like" for a well-thought-out reply.
Well I was doing my best to arrive at a pathway that feels constructive and meaningful and rewarding to people. Life on basic assistance filling days with meaningless hobbies just doesn't sit well with me. I also don't think that globalism is an answer, since over time standards of living and pay are rising making the "race to the bottom" nearly over. The endgame feels like a small elite on top and a vast "grey goo" of working poor eking by and even more destitute folks and mendicants and criminals than we have now preying on them.
A significant concern for me is the large percentage of people who are likely to be without purpose. Yes, we already have a large number of people who would fit into that definition today, many of them there voluntarily. There is even a term for them: useless eaters. However, at some point, there will inevitably be a push by the government, the deep state, or some other shadowy power to eliminate the useless eaters, and this is likely to include those who are in that category involuntarily, either because any job that they might have been suited for has been made defunct or due to age or infirmity.
Well there are several factors that have made demographic collapse look unavoidable now. Delayed maturation means once people finally grow out of adolescence they are looking at the obstacles of a geriatric pregnancy (age 35) with conception woes and pregnancy failures and birth defects. Even if they have one kid, by the time a second looks practical they're pushing 40 and it's even less advisable. Anti-conception drugs and abortion help make this possible. As difficult as we all understand it to be, demographers are alarmed by the low rate of teen unwed pregnancies. While it looks like a stark and heavy-handed thing to talk about on a personal scale, population-wise this has always been important to our species. So while there is plenty of hand-wringing in governments over the collapse... might those be Crocodile Tears for something intentionally engineered? The WEF's origins go back to 1971, just after the "free love" culture had taken firm root.
I have seen that here among the Native population. Beginning in the 1970s, the Federal government took the role of the Native male away and put all those people on one or another form of welfare. It has led to alcoholism, drugs "addiction" (cannabis mostly), and suicide in large numbers. The females still have a role but that is going away as well, and those who stay in their ancestral homeland often succumb to the same maladies. The result is a destruction of a society and an entire way of life.
Trump's tongue-in-cheek comment about Canada becoming the 51st U.S. state is actually gaining some traction, mostly based on the tax advantages. In a recent survey, 13% of Canadians surveyed would support joining the U.S. What is much more popular, however, is an economic union similar to the EU. I am not sure that Americans want the burdens that Canada's social health system would bring, but since Covid and the Obamacare issues, single-payer healthcare might get support here. If Canada joined with the U.S. and the two nations jointly governed Greenland, we would control almost half of the Arctic coastline (not quite). There is no way that Denmark could defend Greenland from Russia and/or China incursion, and even Canada is worried about defending its extensive Arctic coastline. I have no idea if all that is what was envisioned when Trump made the remark, but sometimes there are serious messages behind his social media posts and casual remarks.
That's what we need, ten Canadian provinces becoming states that will all vote Democrat. The Democrats should be onboard with that one.
Alberta wouldn't vote Democrat and perhaps not Saskatchewan either. Most of the others would though except Quebec, who would form their own party and vote against both sides. BC is a bit like Oregon and Washington--the high population cities vote Left and everybody else votes Right.
In a history of the War of 1812 that I read a few years back, the author suggested that the Western part of Canada was willing to become part of the United States until the war began and Americans began raiding Canadian farms and businesses.
Actually, British Columbia nearly became a part of the U.S. since it was unconnected with the rest of Canada at one time. That was the reason Canada bothered to complete the Trans-Canada Railway through the mountains. BC was being supplied from the U.S. west coast until that happened. That also was probably where most of the raiding was happening. You know the Pig Wars and all that
Well, the Lawfare Calliope is back in town wheezing and creaking again: Prosecutor on whether Congress can BLOCK Trump's certification It's the bit about blocking certification based on, you know, that terrible "insurrection" that never happened.
I guess they "overlooked" the fact that he was never charged with inciting an insurrection. But why be bothered by the facts.
I know people want to breathe a sigh of relief and avoid the extreme negativity. Sadly there is a whole lot of "awful" going on. After the election there was a lot of hand-wringing and wailing from the left. Then for a brief moment, it felt like people were accepting the reality of the will of the people and trying to come to terms with it. Behind the scenes I guess, the strategists began working overtime to plan out detailed campaigns of resistance in the wake of Trump's unexpected sweep. Now the "ugly" is being trotted out onstage. For example, more scummy illegal immigrant shielding and exploitation: California Governor Caught Plotting Against Trump to Use Tax Dollars Inappropriately I suppose it was just too much to expect that we'd quietly transition to a new normal that removed so many of the heavy burdens weighing us down.