Almost everythings going online?

[Guest DaveW]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/feb/13/john-lewis-cuts-325-jobs-department-managers

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/feb/13/republic-administration-fashion-jobs-retail

[fuzzyedges]

It seems we are going further and further away from the keynesian theory

It cant only be me that sees if there is a shortage of jobs there will be a shortage of cash and there will be a shortage of people buying things online or not

Welcome medieval England

[Guest DaveW]

They were saying on the radio this morning Fuzzy that the productivity of the British worker is on average only half that of the American one. I can only presume that is not because they work a lot harder, but their industry is more mechanised and computerised. However unless you keep increasing consumption, simply keep increasing productivity in the end means more unemployment, even though theoretically an exporting country may get richer through it.

 

The only way to sop up the unemployed then will be to ban overtime and shorten the working week, having two people employed half of the week each instead of one full time as now.  However to bring that about government taxation, pensions systems and employers insurance would need to be changed so it is no dearer for an employer to employ two people half a week each rather than just one for a whole week. Meaning these costs would need to be levied on each hour an employee worked, not per individual employee. At the moment the tax, pensions and employers insurance schemes mean it is cheaper to employ one person on overtime than employ another worker, or even better put a machine in to replace workers and avoid most of these costs. When a machine becomes redundant it may have a second-hand or scrap value for the firm. When a worker is made redundant it costs the firm money to get rid of them so the choice is obvious.

 

Still the fact the populations getting older with more retiring from the labour market and less young workers coming along may mean increasing use of the Internet, mechanisation and computerisation requiring fewer workers will be an advantage after all in order to keep up the same levels of production and feed and clothe everybody. Otherwise we may have seen the situation, due to mechanisation and computerisation, where the more people are made redundant being replaced by technology, the more productive our industry becomes and the better our balance of payments. Obviously in the end the world can only go on increasing production so far before industry has to cut back because it is destroying the planet and it's natural resources.

 

Even in China the population is evidently getting older and they too are wondering if they will have enough younger workers to support the elderly in their old age, so mechanisation and computerisation will become a necessity for industry. Possibly there will need to be some form of redistribution of wealth earned by industry employing proportionately fewer people in the future Fuzzy, maybe through some form of new company taxation?

 

Also too much supposed job security can be a problem regarding employment (as in France).  An employer will often pass up contracts rather than employ additional workers if they are too hard to get rid of if the market changes (again the French with their car firms). When my father started in the Building Trade an employer could sack you at four hours notice with no redundancy pay. It was not unknown for a worker in his trade to have two employers in a day as they simply went down the road if made redundant in the morning and got set on at the next site, since if an employer could get rid of them easily if they proved useless they were more willing to take people on. Of course the professions had the luxury of requiring I think it was a fortnight's notice in those days, rather than four hours! What is certain is the world is changing and the traditional forms of employment will have to change too, or Britain will continue to decline in the modern world.

Edited February 14, 2013 by DaveW

[fuzzyedges]

As I said Dave welcome to medieval England