Why isn't perpetual high unemployment inevitable?

[Icyedge]

richardhutnik said:

Mr Khan said:

I'm saying when we enter a post-scarcity society, which would be wayyy down the line (once we figure out Cold Fusion), then capitalism (which is an economic vehicle to minimize scarcity and optimize output overall) would cease to be because everyone could meet their needs from a virtually infinite, totally automated system

As i said, think Star Trek. Not "Communist" as in single-party totalitarianism, but everyone has what they need without having necessarily to work for it (though everyone worked on Star Trek... hmm...)

Not post-scarity, but a situation where there aren't enough jobs to go around, and you end up with the situation we are in now, if not more permanent, where most people don't even have a full-time job, and the main job they have doesn't pay the bills.  If you are lucky enough to pay the bills, it is with 3 jobs all like 5-20 hours a week being the norm.  People aren't needed to work.  At that point, then what happens?

And take your system you speak of, and it is entirely privatized.  So, how do people be able to get the goods and services?  They aren't working and can't produce anything people really want.

Or say the future is increasingly this...

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/mta_announces_contest_for_app_developers_TvlJghBmT4gDXqFjyWu9CN

Businesses have contests, get what they want done for a single prize paid out to the winner and they keep everything else.  What if this is the future?  Work is done via contests, with most people not getting compensated for the hours of effort they put in.  Then what comes next?

At some point, the earth may be poluted enough that some kind of organization or leader representing the elite of the society will simply decide to get rid of the 5-6 billions human that arent really needed.