Economics 101

Economics 101

Try as Republicans will to blame high unemployment on Obama, the real fact is- from hereon there will never be low unemployment in the U.S. The reason is simple: We have too many people, close to tripling population since before World War II. Back then, with population a little more than a hundred million and few if any women in the workforce, once the Depression was over, there were plenty of jobs. So, what happened? First of all, post-wear baby boom. Second, women remained in the work force. And, perhaps more important, automation.

Let me be very simplistic: ears ago, a factory making widgets employed 100 people. Just about anybody willing and able to work had a job. But, while the population increased rapidly and there were more customers, Mr. Babbitt, the factory owner bought some automated machinery which could quintuple the output of widgets and do so with only about forty people. Now, there were not merely sixty people out of a job, but three times that many (given the population increase) were looking for, and not finding, employment.

Well, you might say, who is making these automated machines which were an innovation> Not the sixty people displaced because they were not trained for that task. So, these unemployed people, ideal for making widgets, would have to be re-trained for other work. But who would pay for re-training? Not the government, although Obama would be willing to spend the money, and not private industry which wants to hoard as many dollars as possible. And colleges and universities are accepting tuition money for liberal arts students who have no training in anything except answering questions about Plato or Aristotle or quoting Shakespeare.

Well, you might interject, what about Obama's jobs bill? He emphasizes new construction and repair of infrastructure- bridges, roads, tunnels, new school buildings. Who with a B.S. degree can handle those jobs? The fact is we're overpopulated and therefore underemployed and not versatile enough nor well trained enough to handle the sort of jobs that are truly needed. We are shifting jobs to India, for example, because they are turning out engineers like sausages in a Bavarian wursthaus. And New Delhi U. doesn't charge UCLA type of tuition.

Sad but true, we have too many people unqualified or overqualified for the potential available jobs. And unfortunately, this will last for generations, despite all the political back-and-forth. America is now too big to provide jobs for those who want and need them.