http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gNiyJ905Ho0Ur96V2TQhsBX19lGwD98AN6B80 Jobs matter most.
Certainly hope not, but this service economy is in a dangerous position. The commodity and manufacturing economies are in such a better place. We need to innovate or die.
We'll innovate something all right, but it won't be manufactured in the USA. Can't imagine what would restore full employment.
GM's new survival plan relies on building cars in China and exporting them to world markets, including the U.S.
bird flu? War? I read that when a country becomes overpopulated with men, you need some kind of war or disaster to thin the herd, return the job market to normal? I read about this somewhere once.
Part of my schooling was in Biology... population dynamics, and that sort of thing. Recently saw an interview with a population expert who claims the planet can support only 3 Billion people and stay healthy. If populations are unchecked, they will eventually exceed the environment's ability to support. Wars and great diseases have served to thin populations periodically. Europe's standard of living said to have dramatically improved after the Black Plague.
That's assuming productivity stays the same. With new innovations and technologies we can support more people. However, as someone already posted, we either innovate or die of resource crowding out. So any governmental or other form of innovation/tech. hinderance should be very much frowned upon. Humans are pretty resourceful when something lights a fire under our asses.
http://graphs.gapminder.org/world/china.php#$majorMode=map$is;shi=t;ly=2003;lb=f;il=t;fs=11;al=100;stl=f;st=f;nsl=t;se=t$wst;tts=C$ts;sp=2.63354838709677;ti=2006$zpv;v=0$inc_x;mmid=XCOORDS;iid=pp59adS3CHWfKPVb7dEexFA;by=const$inc_y;mmid=YCOORDS;iid=pp59adS3CHWeM2XP7TGtJIA;by=const$inc_s;uniValue=20;iid=pp59adS3CHWcytVQNXXOETQ;by=ind$inc_c;uniValue=255;gid=CATID0;by=universal$map_s;sma=46;smi=2$cd;bd=0$inds= ................................................ Checkout the moving graphs.... Then extrapolate ....
That's optimism we Americans want to have, but likely not correct. 1. Greater "productivity" is actually bad for employment. What is to be done with displaced workers? 2. Innovations make money for the innovator mostly, not employees. Any innovation which is going to make a lot of money will have to be distributed widely... and it's likely to be made where labor is cheap. 3. When the full reality of this credit bubble deflation is felt, we're likely to find we have a permanent, structural problem of high unemployment.