>full employment
We have folks living in tent cities.
12.8% is "on disability"
Yeah we're at full employment as long as you consider U6 rather than the old standard of U5.
We have folks living in tent cities.
12.8% is "on disability"
Yeah we're at full employment as long as you consider U6 rather than the old standard of U5.
Society shouldn't pretend these people don't exist but they're rightfully a different class of unemployed.
Which percentage of society should be permanently alienated from ownership and engagement, and who decides?
And it's a valid point! If people really are choosing not to take jobs that are readily available, then automating those jobs is a net benefit.
Now, we should not ignore the fact that this is stated as a hypothetical! Are there a mass of unemployed who are choosing not to work? And would all of the people who lose their jobs due to burger flipping automation be able to find new jobs or be happy with no job?
Those seem like the more relevant questions.
In any case, very few technologies (relative to everything that's created) actually make living standards better, mostly just things in healthcare. Almost everything else is pretty much a rats race fueled by business and profit, not by intentions of improving people's lives.
To make it a bit clearer...
Currently, humanity as a whole has the resources (materials, technology, etc), to provide good housing, education, food and healthcare for everyone on this planet. However, everyday we choose not to do that and do whatever else it is we do instead.
This is just an observation, not a moral judgement on anyone in particular. By the way, I'm personally not doing anything to change the current state of affairs, so I can't really point any fingers.
Hopefully the situation will change at some point.
June, 2018: "Disability Applications Plunge as the Economy Strengthens"
"The number of Americans seeking Social Security disability benefits is plunging, a startling reversal of a decades-old trend that threatened the program’s solvency. It is the latest evidence of a stronger economy pulling people back into the job market or preventing workers from being sidelined in the first place."
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/19/business/economy/social-s...
U5 is at 4.6%... https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t15.htm
It is also, by definition, lower than U6.