On Tue, 06 Nov 2012 20:14:05 -0600, Ignoramus5113
wrote:

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.

True. Nobody harvests wheat by hand any more. Now a guy in a big
harvester (imported from China) comes by and cuts your field for you
and 23 people, with sickles, lost their jobs. So now we have two guys
with an income (you with the wheat and the other guy with the
harvester) and 23 people begging on the corner.

--
Cheers,
John B.