The main reason jobs are an issue is that the “bread and butter” manufacturing jobs of the post World War II economy disappeared over the last 35-45 years. While the Military Industrial Complex is well in America, it is not the employer of the ages gone by. The component pieces of our military, consumer, and industrial goods are manufactured overseas in factories whose employees are economic slaves within that country and whose employees cannot rise out of that desperate situation.
We Americans cannot compete with that economically as our costs of living are astronomical high compared to those employees. Further efforts to tax or tariff the import of cheap goods is going to raise our costs without any increase in employment in our country. The international cartels of corporations will keep the price just under the level that would make sane business people invest in making the goods within our borders.
When we have frittered away the trillions we needed on infrastructure, gutted the Affordable Care Act, defunded Medicaid, and otherwise allowed the fanatical conservative right of the Republican party to refuse to support the society, we will begin to experience subsistence living akin to what our ancestors experienced around preindustrial agrarian times in America.
Simple things like running water, roads, food, electricity, communications, and transportation will become carefully and closely managed priority needs for every one of the 98%. The promise of “increased productivity” simply means that the corporations will minimize the use of humans beings and human knowledge to produce the products for those same people to consume.
As that has gone in my lifetime the erosion of “native talent” went with it. In my parents time, post WWII, all you needed to do was produce because the want and need was unfulfilled and you could largely name your own price. Today incomes are so low that we must return to “going without” or “producing it ourselves”.
Most people do not have the basic tools and skills to accomplish this. The patient planning, preparation, and forbearance required for raising food is beyond most American’s skills and means. You can still get a couple of burgers, fries, and a drink for less than five bucks. This will be available until the water, electric, fuel, and infrastructure fail or crumble.
History dictates that all civilizations will rise and fall. The governments organized by the citizens are the cause of their demise. Government overburdens the citizenry and causes the citizen to overdrive the resources fueling their lives. It is gradual and ultimately leads to individuals working alone and away from the encumbrances of the politicos and their surround. The hard working, thick skinned, determined, and unafraid will wander off and care for their small clan. The ability to learn will be more valuable that accreditation. Knowledge will be employed. Philosophies will be simple. Actions and their results will be most valuable.
What do you think?
Oddly I could apply your last paragraph to what is going on in corporate America as well as our country. My company is doing the same thing with its employees and they are reacting the same way. Teams that used to work well together have become fractured units struggling against each other. Leadership is chaotic at best. They talk about “best practices” and “doing the right thing”, but the company has not committed any resources towards that goal. Corporations today are so involved with manipulating government policies in their favor, should we really expect anything more? Absolute power corrupts absolutely.