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The "quiet catastrophe" is particularly dismaying because it is so quiet, without social turmoil or even debate. It is this: After 88 consecutive months of the economic expansion that began in June 2009, a smaller percentage of American males in the prime working years (ages 25 to 54) are working than were working near the end of the Great Depression in 1940, when the unemployment rate was above 14 percent. If the labor-force participation rate were as high today as it was as recently as 2000, nearly 10 million more Americans would have jobs.
The work rate for adult men has plunged 13 percentage points in a half-century. This "work deficit" of "Great Depression-scale underutilization" of male potential workers is the subject of Nicholas Eberstadt's new monograph "Men Without Work: America's Invisible Crisis," which explores the economic and moral causes and consequences of this:
Is it an aberration, or a harbinger of things to come?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 09 2016, @04:35AM
keynesian economists
Any economist who accepts Capitalism as acceptable, is part of the problem.
Capitalism requires continual growth.
When a (Capitalist) speculator doesn't get sufficient return, he will move his capital elsewhere.
minimum wage and other job-stifling regulations
You seem to believe that an economy can survive without consumers.
...and that a country where the majority is impoverished can have a strong economy.
...and France reduced the workweek to 35 hours while keeping weekly pay the same.
It worked well for about 2 decades before USA and other Neoliberals (like you are) crashed the world economy.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 09 2016, @04:46AM
"Any economist who accepts Capitalism as acceptable, is part of the problem."
Right, right, we want all our economists to be idealogues. Noted.
"Capitalism requires continual growth."
It requires nothing of the sort. The effects of the accumulation of capital are well documented, and generally beneficial, but they are not a prerequisite for handling things according to a broadly capitalistic system. Take off the blinkers and get back to definitions, because you're getting major things wrong here.
"...and France reduced the workweek to 35 hours while keeping weekly pay the same. It worked well for about 2 decades before USA and other Neoliberals (like you are) crashed the world economy."
Even assuming that's true (pro tip: it's not) any supposedly marvellous system that depends on third parties not doing unpredictable things isn't marvellous. It's unstable. France was subsidised by Germany's success as the engine of Eurozone development, and while they weren't as flagrant about their excesses as, say, Italy, they got away with stupid shit because they had a chance to ride that german horse. And ride it they did.
Seriously, dude. Do your research.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 09 2016, @01:52PM
You are utterly clueless, the Germans are the ones who benefit from having French people keep the value of the Euro low.
Don't worry, there are lots of equally incompetent people to mod you up. Keep thinking you're a smart cookie.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 09 2016, @05:27PM
Sure, the germans had a comparative benefit to their export driven economy with a lower exchange rate.
None of that in any way contradicts the ways that the mediterranean (and similar) economies used the coalesced bond markets with their implicit guarantees to keep the good times rolling.
Until the wheels publically fell off.
Key point: any attempt to say that France was doing just peachy until satanic external ... I mean neolibera ... I mean, exploitative capitalists crashed the world economy is revisionist, at best.
I mean, look at all the fuss around their attempts to boost youth employment. Think the USA has an underemployment problem? Then France must have an underemployment calamity. Spain has similar problems. This has been going on for a long time - longer ago than the big thud.
But sure. Blame it on Germany and Globocapitaloneoliberasatanism. That's always true.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Sunday October 09 2016, @08:44AM
In fact the whole issue is misrepresented.
If robots work instead of you and computer think and remember instead of you, a society MUST work less.
What do you do when you have less work to do? take turns. But alas, millions of idle men, or women for that matter, who are not desperate for jobs or dumbing themselves with drugs and tv, and instead start looking at society, at what their economists and polititcians do, at the ramification of the choices that have been taken from them, is the LAST thing people in charge want. They would rather let economy tank, civil war rage. They can profit from that.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Sunday October 09 2016, @01:33PM
You're way too used to talking to people with a modicum of intelligence.
At least half (likely much more) aren't capable of understanding even the most basic problems of society, and that's without the drugs or television! Just look at my countries choices for leadership this year. And the cheerleaders of both sides defend their actions. That's not rational.
Bread and Circuses. Make sure they have at least something on the line and keep 'em just happy enough not to rise up, because when they truly have nothing to lose.....well, we know where that story goes.
Automation though, is going to make this go around a lot more interesting, and governments are slow to react to change. What will they do when most service, driving, janitorial and industrial jobs are automated? There will have to be a massive change to society to keep it in check once only mechanics, coders, and politicians have real jobs. (way oversimplified I know, but I'm rambling as it is, too much drugs and TV...)
Idiocracy is fast becoming a documentary.
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 09 2016, @04:44PM
Idiocracy was a commentary on our society, not a prediction. We are already there, minus some of the exaggerations.
(Score: 2) by Dr Spin on Sunday October 09 2016, @04:06PM
Just wait till 30% of the robots are redundant - they you will see the real problems!
Warning: Opening your mouth may invalidate your brain!
(Score: 2) by Bot on Wednesday October 12 2016, @09:37AM
I'll join the Army...
Account abandoned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 09 2016, @07:06PM
What do you do when you have less work to do? take turns.
The (Socialist) Mondragon worker-owned cooperative has encountered this (in a micro sense, serving as an example for the macro model).
With the construction of new housing in a slump, orders to their appliance manufacturing division slowed down.
They moved some folks from the appliance division to other divisions and reduced everyone's hours a bit.
Everyone tightened his belt a bit and all the worker-owners have weathered the slump.
Compare this to the way a Capitalist operation would have handled that: laying off a bunch of folks.
Add to that the increased productivity of USAian workers for decades and decades while wages have essentially remained flat. [washingtonpost.com]
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 13 2016, @09:35PM
Not actually true.
Some industries had massive layoffs. Others did not. Do you know what the difference was?
No, it was not the magnitude of charitable urges of blood-sucking vampiric bosses.
It was how easily replaced the workers were. Construction? Bad news, guys, almost anyone can step in and push a wheelbarrow full of concrete up a ramp. Master machinists? Say there, friend, could we drop your hours for a while until the bad times are over?
In some mixed systems such as in Germany, layoffs were extremely rare. They just cut hours and waited out the storm.
Nothing unique about Mondragon here.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday October 13 2016, @10:09AM
If robots work instead of you and computer think and remember instead of you, a society MUST work less.
And if instead robots work to increase the value of your own labor, then a society would continue to see high demand for labor.