Nay say Nay Again

We have been treated once again to a State of the Union Speech, and the wack-nut reaction to it from what is becoming the core of the Republican Party. 

There are a host of issues and problems that should occupy the interest of the Congress of the United States.  The recession is still present in many rural states and counties in the country; our own Shasta County being one.

The President talked, finally, about the effects of technology on the economy and unemployment.

 The Great Recession was deepened, no doubt, by robotics (a topic that economists gloss over with the wonders of technology). 

The manufacturing sector in the United States has been affected by two things:  outsourcing jobs to cheaper labor markets, and robotics. 

Yes, that's right, robotics.

Recently Amazon caused quite a stir, by announcing that it was considering short flight drones to deliver its smaller packages.  While an extreme example, this is yet another threat to jobs.

Robots put together our automobiles, pack trucks for shipping.  And, the internet has streamlined shopping, wrecking havoc with the retail sales industry.  Computers have savaged the postal service, substituting email for letters, spam for newspaper advertising.  Newsweek magazine, Life and many newspapers are gone along with thousands of jobs.

This is all being caused by technology, that has massively  reduced labor costs, increasing productivity (the amount of product created by worker) to unprecedented heights. 

This simply means fewer people create more productivity.  And the result is increased unemployment and the cheapening of the work force.

Minimum wage jobs are held by not just teenagers entering the workforce (the latest excuse used conservatives to ignore the real roots of underemployment), but by middle aged Americans who simply cannot find anything else.

Conservatives, who have decided to be against everything, and I mean everything the President and the Democrats are for, use every excuse in the book to deal with the impact of technology and robotics on the job market.

Conservatives came out after the President's speech, slamming him while doing lip service to bi-partisanship. 

The truth is they are spending all of their time and effort trying to sabotage the Affordable Care Act, refusing to even consider immigration reform, and keeping every  jobs bill hostage in the House of Representatives.

Technology and the global economy have created an economic reality in the world unlike any before.  In many ways it is as impactful as the industrial revolution was in the 1800s.  Huge areas of the economy have been revolutionized, creating less jobs that produce more products.

This has meant a bonanza of cheap hd televisions, smart phones, clothing; etc.  It also has meant a huge gap between the rich and the poor.  We read with astonishment that less that 1% of the world's population control over 80% of the worlds wealth.  In fact  only80 people in the world control over 80% of the wealth!  This makes France before the Revolution look like a socialist paradise!

This centralization of wealth cannot be ignored; except by the conservatives.  They say its big governments' fault. 

That is patently false and they know it.  What government has done is encourage technology at every turn, aided and abetted by investor interests, that has driven a disparity between rich and poor that grows every day.   Both Democratic administrations and Republican have supported economic growth by encouraging technological advances that massively reduce jobs.

Government has failed everywhere to take steps to mitigate the damage to labor markets by mass robotic and technological production and distribution innovations.  Every robot takes 10 jobs, every news app, lays off another reporter. 

We need another progressive era to evolve quickly.  We need our economic experts to figure out ways of fixing this inequity, before revolutions begin.  We need to stop being in awe of technology an realize the basic threats to human health and happiness its spin offs cause.  Revolution and war are the alternatives. 

That's right, revolutions.  No social/political/economic system can long exist with huge disparities between rich and poor.  The French Revolution, the Russian Revolution are two examples of what happens when economic inequities are allowed to fester.

And the rise of fascism is also a product of this imbalance between productivity and labor.  I have postulated here many times, that a fascist threat very much exists in the United States.  Conservatives have long ago crossed the line into fascist ideology, supporting plutocracy, which produces a violent reaction eventually from people who are damaged and threatened by technology change. 

This tension leads to violence, conflict and the destruction of democratic states. 

But what do we get from the right?  "Let them eat cake", is basically their response.  Leave the free market economy alone and it will result in prosperity for all. 

This is bull and they know it.   The free market economy is fueling the inequity of wealth, adding to the misery, and aiming all of us to violent upheavals throughout the world. 

I really think they have no valid response, because typical of conservatives they look backward rather than forward.  Progressives do the opposite and that was at the core of the President's speech.

We simply cannot afford to keep saying no to everything.  The problems are too great and increasing in scope.  We either make effective changes, or endure the upheavals that are likely to come.

We can be part of the problem or part of the solution.

Conservatives simply don't get that.