another reason unemployment will not drop....

[callmeslick]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41415001/ns ... d_economy/

good news for the economy, good news for those with the skill set, lousy news for those without the education or expertise to work in a modern manufacturing environment.

[Barfly]

Frees up labor for other activity - that is good.

[callmeslick]

Frees up labor for other activity - that is good.

correct, in theory.

[Barfly]

Not good short term for those that lose jobs, but in the long term an improvement, and may be described as a theory only as much as any perspective on economics is a theory.

[callmeslick]

Not good short term for those that lose jobs, but in the long term an improvement, and may be described as a theory only as much as any perspective on economics is a theory.

sort of what I was trying to say, Barfly. As you state, not good for those losing jobs, but great IF(and this is where the 'in theory' part came in) you have the R and D expertise, budgets and insights to develop new, manufacturing businesses. In other words, without a pipeline generating new products for manufacturers to make, none of those lost jobs will be replaced with newly created ones. Further, looking at the current US economy, political will to focus on R and D(requres government expenditure most of the time), education of the workforce and the status of our intellectual infrastructure(go to any grad school, note the percentage of foreign-born students for engineering or the basic sciences), unemployment at very high levels will be the norm for some time to come.

[callmeslick]

I know the above is gloomy, but I think it's accurate......