This Tweet, coming from a Republican, is a bit of a surprise.
At some point, we might have to accept that for a stable society, we have sacrifice some econ efficiency to maintain blue collar jobs.
— Sean T at RCP (@SeanTrende) December 21, 2016
It generated an interesting discussion. The basic problem is that with ever-increasing productivity, we need ever-fewer worker hours to produce all the goods and services we can consume. The obvious answer is to reduce the number of hours/workweek, so you increase the number of workers needed, but not cut the annual income of those workers. And you need to address the fixed cost of employment, so you socialize most fringe benefits currently associated with employment. And you have to accept that this will channel more of GDP back into compensation, reducing profits.
So, it’ll never happen.