Quote from Kassz007:
New technology and new innovation will dictate where job growth will come from. What will those new technologies and new innovations be? Nobody knows, but rest assured they will come. How long it will take and in what industries are the only variables. If I had these answers I would plow my life savings into these industries.
Technology is a double edged sword. In the past, it has both created and destroyed jobs.
The trend I see today is technology creating productivity efiiciencies, thus, on a net basis, jobs are actually lost. Imagine if the casino economy that flourished after leaving the gold standard never grew as it did? We would have realized those jobs losses.
There is another issue.
Who defined optimum employment as a society where 95% of employable people have a job, work 5 days a weeks, and have two weeks off a year? That equates to a certain number of hours worked, right?
Why do we model a society on how many hours need to be worked, and not on how many things are actually needed to be consumed?
We never fully realized these technological productivity gains. Yes, in terms of households we have - microwave ovens, dishwashing machines, washing machines, etc... freed up our time from housework. But what about our time spent on a job?
Why has this process of increasing productivity not affected how an economy works? I'll tell you why: it goes back to the 95% employed, 2 weeks vacation, etc...
If we want 95% of people to be employed - we need shorter workweeks. Instead, we deficit spend, and rely on a private banking system to create funny money, to drive up demand, to succeed in having 95% @ 40 hours a week @ 50 weeks a year.
We need to change how we view productivity gains and how we use them to our advantage - in a realistic way.