Quote:
Originally Posted by iggy_oi
I'm not saying we should stop businesses from being profitable or efficient, what I'm saying is when a company increases profits or efficiency but does not use the gains from it to reinvest in job creation and increasing consumerism there will eventually be a tipping point where economic growth comes to halt that we won't be able to recover from. Walmart or Amazon can reduce labour costs by installing selfserve kiosks or using machines to make deliveries, but there is only so much they can possibly reinvest those savings into. Walmart only needs so many stores to serve its customers, so they will eventually reach a point where despite their savings they will not be able to create new jobs. These machines they use are not made domestically so what happens when the jobs they eliminate cannot be recovered in other industries? People on welfare don't exactly brag about how much stuff they are able to buy.
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I think you actually did say we should curb efficiency.
But nonetheless, Responding to your last comment, where do you draw the line between artificially propping up jobs or not? Even by the standard you illustrate above how could anyone possibly know when to throw money at the dinosaur jobs or not? What an awful waste of time that will never be executed well. Might as well spend the money and energy on retraining into areas where labor is actually wanted.
off topic from the OP I know, but your idealistic view on how economies should work just doesn't fit in the real world. I'm concerned about societies ability to keep enough people employed as you are. Especially in Canada where the labor force is not preparing well for the next generation but to just artificially pretend jobs exist where they shouldn't is a ticket to losing. Every single time.