Technology makes jobs obsolete. And that is actually a good thing.

[howard112211]

Or rather: It is not the essence of where the problem lies.

From my little understanding of history and Marxist theory, I get that what we are seeing today with the computerization is a trend that is happening at a faster rate than ever before but is nothing fundamentally new. Namely that technology makes production more efficient and thus reduces the demand for manual labor. Anything that is said about computers, can be said about the tractor as well, since it replaced scores of farm workers.

The thing is, when production becomes more efficient, essentially two things can happen: Either that increased efficiecy translates into a net gain for the common good (everyone has to work less to have the same standard of living) OR it translates into increased profit for the owner of the means of production (capitalist).

The later of these two options however is self-contradictory, since the capitalist relies on the worker to also be a consumer who buy the product. So if the workers lose their income due to technology, at some point there will be no one to generate demand for the produced goods.

Today, the capitalist can, due to globalization, exploit the wealth gap between nations to circumvent this contradiction for a while. Produce in one country and sell in another. However, in the long run the contradiction will catch up.

[comtec]

1. You say that assuming ration on the part of the capitalist

once upon a time that was true.
but no more.
look at all the off shoring of jobs.
quality has gone to shit in the support sector.
quality of everything has gone to shit once it all got shipped overseas.

that money isnt coming back into our economy, it's going into india and china's.

in a more logical world what you say is true... but logic has long since been outsourced
edit:spell check

[howard112211]

2. Outsourcing temporarily allows the producer to work around the contradiction

because by producing in a place with much lower standard of living, one can still sell products at home to the people whose standards of living are also on decline, by cutting price and quality. It cannot work indefinately on a global scale though. At some point, the contradiction catches up.

[comtec]

3. which, sadly, brings us full circle =[ nt