On 2012-11-07, Tom Gardner Mars@Tacks wrote:
On 11/6/2012 4:37 PM, Ignoramus5113 wrote:
On 2012-11-06, Karl Townsend wrote:
...
This fundamental issue is also combining with automation to further
erode the ability of a country's economy to gainfully employ the
majority of it's population. When the production of all the products and
services required by 100% of the population only requires 20% of the
population's labor you have another serious problem that has no easy
solution.

The easy solution is called a service economy. Nobody said that
"production" is the only real economic activity.

There was a famous fella in the late 1800s that wrote about the
destiny of civilization when production is increased to the Nth
degree. His name, Karl Marx.

I no longer recall what, if anything, Karl Marx wrote about that sort
of thing.

i


A service economy doesn't create wealth. No society can survive unless
their main activity is wealth creation. Wealth creation is:
Mining/drilling, agriculture/logging, manufacturing. PERIOD! A service
economy is doomed to fail, it's like a circle of guys polishing each
others' shoes...eventually they run out of polish. I'm very surprised
to see you state that, you know better and I know you know better.

See my answer to Mike Terrell. I do not think that manufacturing will
disappear, but I do think that as time goes on, it will employe less
and less people. Same thing happened to agriculture.