My point was that employment is not something to be overly focused on. The idea of creating millions of jobs by outlawing the combine is absurd to most people, as should be the idea of ever trying to "create jobs" via policy.
In a dynamic economy there will always be lots of demand for labor. At the margins, some labor is priced very low, which is a separate social issue for which I favor some kind of welfare system.
We should be wary of the idea that anyone "deserves" a job or a particular wage, since the next thing we know we are all being required to pay for something we don't want or need. Imagine how much a loaf of bread would cost if we outlawed the combine and required all the workers to be paid minimum wage.
I strongly support a social welfare system to help people adapt to changing economic conditions, but in my opinion it does not make sense to try to pretend that the economy is something it is not. Just because we may nostalgically want manual wheat harvesters working on honest day for an honest wage, someone will come along and invent a combine that drastically increases society's productivity because it frees up that labor for some more productive purpose, benefitting us all.
Some of us in the course of our careers will be forced to find another line of work b/c someone invents a "combine" for our industry. There is nothing noble about holding a job that exists only because some politician outlawed that combine.
Fearmongering about massive economic shifts is particularly silly b/c never before in history has it been so easy to learn new skills, and never before have there been so many low cost ways to obtain education.
In a dynamic economy there will always be lots of demand for labor. At the margins, some labor is priced very low, which is a separate social issue for which I favor some kind of welfare system.
We should be wary of the idea that anyone "deserves" a job or a particular wage, since the next thing we know we are all being required to pay for something we don't want or need. Imagine how much a loaf of bread would cost if we outlawed the combine and required all the workers to be paid minimum wage.
I strongly support a social welfare system to help people adapt to changing economic conditions, but in my opinion it does not make sense to try to pretend that the economy is something it is not. Just because we may nostalgically want manual wheat harvesters working on honest day for an honest wage, someone will come along and invent a combine that drastically increases society's productivity because it frees up that labor for some more productive purpose, benefitting us all.
Some of us in the course of our careers will be forced to find another line of work b/c someone invents a "combine" for our industry. There is nothing noble about holding a job that exists only because some politician outlawed that combine.
Fearmongering about massive economic shifts is particularly silly b/c never before in history has it been so easy to learn new skills, and never before have there been so many low cost ways to obtain education.