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Comment Re:If not now... (Score 1) 1023

I'm not advocating it, but I'm also not going to ostrich myself to the reality that automation is going to continue to put people out of work until only the highest skilled, specialized techs and engineers, doctors, will be working. A high percentage of jobs that people do today can and will be replaced my machines over the next 50 years. Furthermore, once jobs are lost overseas, what company in their right mind is going to come back to America when they have access to labor for pennies on the dollar. We need to adapt to the changes that foreign sources of labor have brought about, reinvent ourselves. rebuild our infrastructure, better educate our youth and find a way to give them a sense of purpose in America, develop technologies that benefit from our strengths, stop being slaves to consumerism (drives our angst more than anything). This see-saw ride we've been on has resulted from a complete lack of objective guidance on the part of politicians and big business. They've been chasing profits while the rest of us suffer. Just pointing out that collapse is where we're headed if we don't check our roll.

Comment Re:If not now... (Score 1) 1023

I suggest we let them replace all the jobs with robots. It'll result in a more consistent quality in the food served. We just tax the company an additional 2080 hours at $8 per x the number of full-time equivalents(~20) that are now sitting at home, on top of the taxes he'd have paid prior to the staffing change. and forward that to the employees in the form of a national subsistance allowance. The McDonalds Owner would easily cover the $350K in additional taxes. We're going to have to figure out what to do when more than 50% of the people are out of work in this country due to automation taking whats left of work in America. Businesses will have to pick up their share of the cost.

Comment Only Half the Solution (Score 1) 866

We've going to need some mechanism to provide basic needs for the countless tens of millions that will be become refugees. Few will have job skills, all will need housing shelter and a commonly agreed upon measure of human dignity. Not all should be cash and some economies of scale will be needed to keep it all affordable. I can see a lot of people going back to a village based agrarian life style and their going to need arable land. A lot of things are going to have to change.

Comment Re:Refugees (Score 1) 173

Most of these refugees are unskilled for positions in European cities. With the skills they do have, they should start by employing those skills to help their brethren. It may take them 1-3 years of focused effort to acquired the skills to fit in in their new environment. Doesnt seem like they have much initiative though.

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