Income gap between rich and poor

Ignoramus10488 · 2010-04-23T03:54:24+00:00

My own theory in the widening income gap between well paid people andbadly paid people is very simple. It is not very much about politicsand mostly about economics, IQs and productivity. economics of this is that work contributions of not sointelligent, or unqualified, people are replaced by computers. Theeasiest example, besides CNC manufacturing, is to see how storecashiers are being replaced by automatic checkouts. Same applies tovery many other professions.As computers become smarter, more and more people are being pushed outof the economic bandwagon and fall on the fringes. They simply cannotcontribute much that is within their abilities. This is significantly different from the past industrial revolutions,where people replaced by machines simlpy learned to operate suchmachines and overall, produced more. Now, there essentially is alesser need to have anyone operate any machines, as computers do itbetter. I do not know what the future holds, and possibly, we will stumble onthe answer on what to do with such displaced people, and the societywill continue happily employing them for something useful. Possibly,we will be forced to improve our education system, with some minorgains due to that. It is also possible that we will not stumble on any such solution andmore and more people will be pushed to the fringe, as computers cansubstitute for a greater percentage of population every year. Thebleak social consequences will be easy to imagine. I find this trend to be very disturbing, as eventually almost everyonewill be eventually displaced from productive activity. Remember thateven now, world chess champions barely win chess matches againstcomputers. For more food for thought, read policy or trade policy cannot do much to stop this essentiallytechnological, microeconomic development. Social policy may make thefate of displaced workers a bit better, and in the meantime aneconomic solution may be found.The individual answer to this is that to be successful,...

Apr 23, 2010 123 Replies

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F. George McDuffee 16 years ago

Why single out this ng? That's life.

=========== Like Will Rogers said "It ain't what you don't know that hurts you -- its what you know that just ain't so."

Unka George (George McDuffee) .............................. The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there. L. P. Hartley (1895-1972), British author. The Go-Between, Prologue (1953).

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Ed Huntress 16 years ago

Not as much. This group -- and the pestholes that messages posted here are often linked to -- contains a disproportionate percentage of people who are especially invested in their preconceived ideas. In my experience, anyway.

It's an interesting window on that psychological behavior. I have no illusions that the most careful, fact-based arguments will overcome it.

In real life, I just happen to run into a higher percentage of people who are open to reason over ideology. Your efforts here are careful enough, and thorough enough, that I have to react with a cynical smile. d8-)

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