'The man who wants to take your jobs'

[mgorse at mgorse.dhs.org (Mike Gorse)]

On Sat, 27 Mar 2004, Rich Braun wrote:

> And I have also suggested earlier in this thread that the number of people we
> need to provide all the services required by the 6 billion consumers in the
> world will continue to decline.  Somehow we need to provide an income for
> those who are not employed (or employable) in cutting-edge roles at the
> bleeding edge of innovation.  Eventually, I think, there won't be anything
> else we need to invent.  What, then, will we have people do in order to obtain
> an income?  The answer can't be clerking at the Walmart or answering the tech
> support lines at Comcast (even those jobs are fast becoming obsolete).
> 

What I really can't understand is that, if machines and technology are 
supposed to make us more productive, then why are we working more hours 
than we used to?  If there is less work that needs to be done because of 
technology, then I'd think that we could all work fewer hours.

And maybe we'll run out of things to invent some time in the distant 
future, but I don't see it happening any time soon.  In the developed 
world, especially the US, we are extremely dependent on non-renewable 
resources such as fossil fuels, so there will be a lot of work to be done 
if we are going to live sustainably at a standard of living anything like 
what we have been enjoying in the last few decades.