a.ashfield <a.ashfi...@verizon.net> wrote: Please explain why more education will help when there aren't enough jobs. > The estimates I see suggest there will only be one new job for every five > that are lost. >
In the past, education helped because automation and robots usually replaced unskilled labor. I think for the next few decades they will continue to replace unskilled labor more quickly than skilled or intellectual labor. For example, self driving cars will replace taxi drivers. I do not think more education is an adequate response to the problem, but it may help. Up until the 1930s, in the U.S. we responded to automation by reducing the work week from around 60 hours to 40 hours. The 2 day weekend became common. It might help to reduce the work week to 4 days (32 hours), with a 3-day weekend, leaving salaries more or less where they are now. This would spread around the remaining labor. Beyond that, there would be no point to a 3-day work week. For most jobs, in order to stay proficient and stay on top of events you have to go at least 4 days a week. In a job such as programming, or piloting airplanes, you lose proficiency remarkably quickly. (So the pilots tell me.) Even a 3-day weekend might have an impact. Nowadays many working poor people hold 2 or 3 jobs, working more than 40 hours a week, because they are not paid a living wage. This increases unemployment. - Jed
