re: #248 MsJ

Is it really the government who needs to invest in keeping their manufacturing at the latest levels to compete against the world? I can see partial investment but these are for profit companies. I am really quite torn here.

Fighting to hold the old world steady in the face of modern advances is no less a losing battle with steel than it is with gay marriage. I am saddened by the loss of jobs in Pittsburgh just as I am with the rest of the rust belt, or with manufacturing in general, but wanting these jobs hard enough is not a recipe for retaining them.

There’s a broader conversation to be had here, of course, in the face of ever-rising per-worker productivity and necessarily bounded demand for produced goods. We’re going to need to come to grips, sooner or later, with the fact that we don’t need all potential workers working in order to keep everybody supplied. No idea how a country like this is going to handle what might be derogatorily termed a “welfare economy”, but it’ll need to happen.