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richardhutnik on 31 July 2011
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HappySqurriel said:
richardhutnik said:
scottie said:
richardhutnik said:

What I mean is that the nature of sustainable technology is such that you can retrain workers in current industries to do the same work.  The amount of labor required doesn't increase.


But it doesn't decrease either, hence why unemployment isn't more prevalent

Same amount of labor here is total number of people employed, not percentage of the population.  If the amount of labor required by an industry remains flat, and population increases, the amount of unemployed increases.  What I am looking at here is trends in what is going on, and seeing if there is alternatives to counter this.  What I have seen is speculation on what might be needed more of, not what actually is.  

While it might end up being yet another thing that reduces total amount of labor, but it looks like the human race is now stuck on what can be next, and equivalent to the Internet, that fundamentalloy shifts the way things would be and the demand for labor, like the Internet did, which did create a lot of new jobs.  Part of my asking is what is quanitifiably different than what we have now coming down?  Tourism doesn't seem to be an answer.


Except that, while the quantity of people required by particular industries stagnates or shrinks all the time, new industries promoting new products and services are being formed all the time ...

Since James Watt invented the steam engine in 1775 we have experienced a much more rapid increase in productivity from generation to generation that has allowed people to provide more goods and services in less time for a lower cost; and, inspite constant predictions that we would eventually see high unemployment in the future, we have not seen this materialize even though productivity has increase by more than 10 times. The growth in people's desires has always exceeded growth in productivity, so as jobs are eliminated new jobs are (almost) immediately created to meet the unsatisfied desires of the population of the world.

Even if something unprecidented happens and people decide that their standard of living is high enough and productivity is used to reduce the amount of work the average person does in a week, the increased free time people have will require new products and services (primarily entertainment related) to satisfy these people.

How about 99 cent phone apps that only require a team of a half a dozen people, for free or for sale for 99 cents, based on Android or open source, and where you don't need a lot of people?  You know, the entire planet gets into Angry Birds, or ends up playing Freecell or Minesweeper?  People decide not to update their current technology, and stick with what they have?  In short, it doesn't require more labor than employed now but is used more.

Also, where does increased free time indicate that people will be able to afford to spend money on anything?  They could look at much lower incomes, and thus adjust their lifestyles accordly, as I know I have.  You think I am buying a 3DS at this point?  Sorry, no money for it.  Money goes for keeping the car on the road.