Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

Sam1

(498 posts)
Thu Jun 12, 2014, 09:13 AM Jun 2014

Are We Suffering from Too Many or Too Few Workers?

Binyamin Appelbaum had an interesting piece in the NYT more or less summarizing views of economists on the economy's near and long-term problems. The piece reflected the incredible confusion among economists. This raises the obvious question, if economists really have no clue about the economy, why do we waste good money on them?

Anyhow, we find that we are suffering from too many workers (high unemployment) and likely to continue to experience high rates of unemployment for the indefinite future due to a lack of demand in the economy. A big part of the problem from this view is that with the inflation rate near zero, the real interest rate (the nominal interest rate minus the inflation rate) can't fall low enough to bring the economy back to full employment since the nominal interest rate can't be negative (or at least not with conventional policy).

http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/are-we-suffering-from-too-many-or-too-few-workers?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+beat_the_press+%28Beat+the+Press%29

5 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies

randys1

(16,286 posts)
1. Isnt it as simple as without factory jobs, manufacturing clothes and televisions and toasters
Thu Jun 12, 2014, 09:16 AM
Jun 2014

that if we are not doing any of that arent we going to have massive unemployment problems indefinitely?

KurtNYC

(14,549 posts)
3. No. Americans with jobs continue to expand hours worked while leisure hours decline.
Thu Jun 12, 2014, 10:18 AM
Jun 2014

So fewer people are doing more work. Lots of other factors at play -- low birth rate, standard of living continues its 46 year decline, cost of healthcare bankrupting families, value of real estate is flat or declining -- most of which puts more demand on labor to work even more hours because expenses are growing and wages per hour are not.

The world is much smaller than it was 40 years ago. After WWII the US was on top in part because so much of the ag and industrial base of europe and asia was in ruins. Manufacturing is not coming back unless there is another world war and that would be a high price to pay for some of the most mind-numbing, soul crushing jobs imaginable.

randys1

(16,286 posts)
4. All true what you said but what I said is unfortunately absolutely true
Thu Jun 12, 2014, 11:55 AM
Jun 2014

We dont make stuff here, we can only hire so many maids and Mickey D workers and street cleaners, etc.

We need to do what we did before Raygun, we need to make it too expensive to outsource jobs and import goods that could be made here...

Warpy

(110,900 posts)
2. We're suffering from too few workers hired at livable wages
Thu Jun 12, 2014, 09:23 AM
Jun 2014

and too many corporations that import workers from other countries so they can pay them peanuts. We're also suffering from too little money paid as taxes on living wages being used to do the incredible amount of work that has to be done to get this country out of backwater, third world status and yes, I'm looking at the crumbling infrastructure of unsafe bridges, vulnerable electrical grid, and lack of public transit in most areas.

We need a revolution. Let's hope we're allowed another peaceful one.

 

fasttense

(17,301 posts)
5. We are suffering from capitalism eating its tail.
Thu Jun 12, 2014, 03:25 PM
Jun 2014

We don't have enough jobs for all the willing workers because capitalist are not investing in job creating opportunities. They are investing in finance because of the lack of consumers in the rest of the economy. The rest of the economy is suffering from a lack of consumers because we don't have enough jobs for all the willing workers because capitalist are not investing in job creating opportunities and on and on.

To break the cycle someone else needs to create jobs. FDR used the federal government to create jobs. But the workers themselves could create jobs by starting worker run factories. We could bring back those out sourced factory jobs ourselves by creating our own factories and running them ourselves. Those jobs shipped to China and India will eventually come back to the US. It's just a matter of time. Either the workers create co-ops and run the factories themselves or the wages in the US drop sooooo much that they under cut India's and China's slave wages.

He is wrong, actually the central bank of England did create a negative interest rate. http://www.theguardian.com/business/blog/2014/jun/05/european-central-bank-ecb-markets-rate-cuts-stimulus-business-live

Latest Discussions»Issue Forums»Editorials & Other Articles»Are We Suffering from Too...