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OT: Jobs, wealth, and change -- more reasons for optimism
Subject:OT: Jobs, wealth, and change -- more reasons for optimism From:"Richard G. Combs" <richard -dot- combs -at- voyanttech -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 13 Nov 2003 15:43:48 -0700
The other day, in response to some posts about outsourcing, I wrote at
length about how such changes in resource allocation make us all better off.
I said that the money saved by outsourcing would:
"...create jobs that are *more* productive, higher-valued, than the
ones being replaced -- that's how companies and individuals make themselves
wealthier, by finding better uses for their capital.
"I think it was either Schumpeter or Hayek who called this process "creative
destruction." Any effort to stop it and freeze things as they are makes us
all poorer in the long run."
A recent NY Times op-ed echoes and reinforces my point. Read the whole thing
at:
==========================================================================
Since 1980, Americans have filed 106 million initial claims for unemployment
benefits, each representing a lost job. Facing unemployment and rebuilding a
life can be hard on families, but the United States today is better off for
allowing it to happen. Even with the net decline in jobs over the past three
years, during the past decade total United States employment has risen to
130 million from 91 million since 1980, a net gain of nearly 40 million
jobs. Productivity, measured by output per worker, increased a staggering
56.2 percent.
Some people tend to forget this. The almost daily drumbeat of reports and
"expert commentary" about a so-called jobless recovery prompts the question,
"What's gone wrong with the labor market?"
The surprising answer: nothing.
Job growth will come, as it always has in the past. The economy, meanwhile,
is as busy as ever in shifting labor from one use to another to make the
country richer and more productive.
==========================================================================
I remain pollyanna-ish as always :-)
Richard
------
Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Voyant Technologies, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT voyanttechDOTcom
303-223-5111
------
rgcombs AT freeDASHmarketDOTnet
303-777-0436
------
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