June 16, 2013

In Saturday's column Paul Krugman addressed an issue that should get more attention. The economy has been expanding, profitability of corporations has been on the rise, and real estate prices seem to have bottomed out. Yet unemployment remains abnormally high, and when you add to the reported unemployed all those who are employed only part time or at or near minimum wages and those who have given up looking for work, you get a very strong indication that our economic system is askew. After all, one-fifth of the children in our country are living in poverty.

It has been rightly asked, even in the face of a robust recovery is high unemployment becoming the new normal? Is it possible that the jobs aren't coming back?

Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution new technologies have on average spawned new jobs as fast or faster as old ones became obsolete. This may no longer be the case. Computerized robots and artificially intelligent machines are increasingly replacing blue collar and white collar jobs alike. We're heading toward where machines can fill all jobs that could be performed by the half of the population that's least skilled and least intelligent.

We can't have tens of millions of able-bodied people sitting around starving or turning to crime as a last resort. We need a national policy looking toward training these people and putting them to work. One example: making, transporting, and installing solar panels. We need them on all the south-facing roofs in America. Robots need not apply.