This Is Our Biggest Problem

Ever since the Industrial Revolution really got going, about 220 years ago, keeping everyone actively employed has been a real problem. Each new industry, every new advance, generated work-saving benefits that created unemployment. The economy has had to run harder and harder just to stay even, employment wise.

The Depression saw similar employment difficulties. People were bewildered in the 1930s about how to generate enough growth to absorb all the idle people.

The Internet Revolution, and related revolutions (computers, cell phones), has been the biggest game-changer ever. Many, many people are effectively redundant. And with the latest economic crisis, the jobs they need just aren't there. And the jobs may take nearly-forever to show up! Since the 1970's, it takes longer and longer for unemployment to recover from economic downturns (see graph above). Deindustrialization has just aggravated that sluggishness.

We need another Internet Revolution, but because of the lack of investment by either business or government, there is little in the pipeline to grab on to. A lot of people pinned their hopes on advances in biology (genetics, and the like), but since the 1980's a lot of those efforts have been directed to patent and copyright protections. The hard work wasn't done. And isn't being done now.

And so, we shuffle on.....