The nation . fall on the man who gets laid off inthe next recession and never getscalled back. It is true that in a strong growthindustry (like the automobile indus-try in 1900-1950), rising demand forits products may more than offsetthe labor-saving effects of mechani-zation. But at present we seem tohave a shortage of major growth in-dustries. Blue-collar employment inmanufacturing is actually falling, al-though output is rising—due in largemeasure to automation. It is signifi-cant that much more than a propor-tionate share of the hard-core unem-ployment in our distressed areasis composed of
The nation . fall on the man who gets laid off inthe next recession and never getscalled back. It is true that in a strong growthindustry (like the automobile indus-try in 1900-1950), rising demand forits products may more than offsetthe labor-saving effects of mechani-zation. But at present we seem tohave a shortage of major growth in-dustries. Blue-collar employment inmanufacturing is actually falling, al-though output is rising—due in largemeasure to automation. It is signifi-cant that much more than a propor-tionate share of the hard-core unem-ployment in our distressed areasis composed of workers whose lastjob was in manufacturing. Anotherdifficulty is that the mobility of anunemployed worker is severely lim-ited. Most important long run ad-justments may take a lifetime. Peo-ple must live in the short run aswell as in the economists long run. The second notion that I questionis that automation will come is true that more than a hundredyears was needed for the steam en-gine to be w
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, bookidnation191jul, bookyear1865
