When you look at the politics of unemployment and the requirement that politicians be optimistic about jobs and the economy, one has to get a little bit nervous. Because the Ponzi-esque nature of our economy and its growth fetish, makes honest discussion about jobs and employment, and the real reasons for declining wages and employment impossible for them to discuss with honesty.
But, luckily, we are not all politicians. I am not an economist, so I'm just going to talk about one reason for change, one that I am familiar with. It scares many but I personally love it because even in depressing times, it makes learning fun. For many, enabling new knowledge is also a blessing, creating great ways to make money by solving problems. Technology could turn our perpetual slump into prosperity, many realize. But don't ignore one fact about it, without a national understanding of it, we're sunk.
Because its the "source" of so much prosperity that America can't afford to continue its denial about its gifts and the changes that it brings. Because, without action, it means mass unemployment for billions. Not millions, billions. Almost everybody now on Earth who doesn't suck in knowledge like a sponge.
I'm talking about information technology and its by-product, automation.
The New York Times says today that the unemployment rate is clearly far higher than stated, because it doesn't count those who have given up looking. Sure, that goes without saying.
Many of those people have given up because they don't have the technical skills to be employed now, and they know it. Or because of our national policy of making it too expensive to hire older people, and encouraging the hiring of the young in their stead.
We need to realize that vast expansion of technology education is absolutely crucial for having an employed populace in the NEAR future.
And that that technology education has to be comprehensive and non-specific, (not based on any one technology, in exclusion of others, it needs to be broad) and based on a solid foundation of math and physical sciences. Or we will find that most of our entire nation is increasingly unemployable at any wage.
It makes no difference that the politicians want to extend the age at which people can claim Social Security, they will be forced to lower it. It makes no difference that the politicians want to force people to buy insurance, nobody will be able to afford it. It makes no difference that the government needs taxes to pay its bills, people will not make money to make that possible. People wont be able to afford to buy, employ or emigrate elsewhere. That is the consequence of continued denial of our technological future. But the rest of the world won't wait for us, and they will surge ahead.
We seem to have absolutely no awareness of the kinds of tools that are changing the business world and making it possible for business to function with fewer unskilled workers every year. We need to.
The key to the changes was the invention of the microprocessor, and the invention of TCP-IP networking and the Internet, and (later TCP-IP version 6, which expands the address space)
Within a decade, we will see microprocessors in almost every kind of device. Those machines will be enabled to make decisions. Instead of people, our machines will be able to be far more autonomous.
What does this mean for unskilled workers? It means that their jobs will be easier, much easier, and that business will need fewer of them over time.
This will have far ranging social implications. Business will become more and more profitable as more kinds of processes become automated. Eventually, business will consist of their executive management and technical staff, and very few other workers.
We ignore this trend at our peril. Its completely apolitical, and it's not something that can be negotiated with as its not being orchestrated by any body. Its based in the development of human knowledge. If you aren't moving forward, you are falling behind.