Do we even need full employment?

[Therblig]

Originally Posted by fisheye

Let me toss in a few other points into this conversation. I am 73 and still working. I had coworkers that told me I would work myself to death. They retired and died!

Because, guess what: You can't do one thing with your life until you are quite elderly and set in your ways and then suddenly make a 90-degree turn to something else. It simply doesn't work for the majority of people, and the idea that you work long and hard for forty years and then by-god you're going to fish or play golf or write for the rest of your days is... absurd. Especially since this "reward" is often predicated on moving out of your lifetime nest of friends, family and familiar to some green-grass "paradise" you've only visited... without a single connection of any kind.

The nasty stick and toxic carrot of "retirement," a concept I'd like to see retired with other forms of slavery.

[g500]

If unemployment issue is not solved soon it could spill over into further economic decline. I've been unemployed for the last 3 months and luckily have received generous benefits. Once they run out, idk. I am considered downsizing from a 1600 sq ft townhouse to a trailer or a tiny house. There just doesn't seem to be much opportunity in my field of accounting here. It seems like most job opportunities (outside of state government jobs) here are trucking and warehousing.

[Therblig]

Originally Posted by g500

It seems like most job opportunities (outside of state government jobs) here are trucking and warehousing.

Right now, yes, because those who use online shopping doubled their orders and the 1/3 of Americans who have never used it, started. Amazon et al. can't move the stuff fast enough.

I wouldn't count on them being anything like permanent jobs — kinda like moving to North Dakota to take an oil field job at insane wages... that may cease to exist next week.

Accounting? Not a field I'd want to be in. On the tier of those white-collar/robot-proof jobs about to be invaded by AI/automation.

As this thread and others make pretty clear, our notions of full/un/employment are going to need some radical revisions.

[ncole1]

Originally Posted by redguard57

Stock markets are near or at all-time highs despite labor force participation rate at an 50 year low and unemployment at a 70 year high.

So my question is, is it necessary at all to re-employ the 35 million unemployed? It does not seem like their jobs matter and we can do fine without them.

The right wingers would need to be willing to let those people get more government aid, which seems quite far off from their current philosophy.