Are jobs obsolete?
Why is this being upvoted? This article begins with a questionable premise and then descends straight into misinformation.<p>The problems in the USPS did not begin with email. They began with a highly questionable requirement that the USPS fund a plan to fully cover the estimated future health care costs of all current employees. <i>They are the only government institution required to do this, and it has crippled their ability to remain profitable:</i><p>* <a href="http://www.plansponsor.com/Post_Office_Says_PreFunding_Retiree_Health_Care_is_Reason_for_Loss.aspx" rel="nofollow">http://www.plansponsor.com/Post_Office_Says_PreFunding_Retir...</a><p>* Read First Few Pages Here -> <a href="http://www.uspsoig.gov/foia_files/RARC-WP-10-001.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://www.uspsoig.gov/foia_files/RARC-WP-10-001.pdf</a><p>* <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/23/us/23postal.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/23/us/23postal.html</a><p>They have overpaid this fund by billions of dollars, but they are not able to use this money to address their current financial shortcomings.<p>Somehow the author of this piece is able to extrapolate from the fiscal problems of the USPS to the overall job market. The extrapolation is misguided at best.<p>There are so many things wrong in this article that I will not take the time to address them all. (Most of Europe was thriving in the Middle Ages? Really? The author needs to define the word thrive.) I just want to say that I find it interesting that there is so much hand-wringing in these comments about jobs being displaced by technology.<p>In economics, we like to call this creative destruction. Old jobs go away and new jobs take their place. This is a natural process, and their is nothing so magically different about the technological revolution that it will somehow "make jobs obsolete".<p>Just as The Luddites protested against the loss of jobs brought on by the technological progress of the Industrial Revolution, now some individuals protest against the loss of jobs brought on by the technological progress of the "Technological Revolution". Then, as now, it was all hand-wringing and nail-biting with no serious economic analysis.<p>The critics say this time is different, this time there will be no new jobs, and we should urge people to find something other to do than working. The critics are wrong. Don't worry people. Employment is here to stay.<p>Side Note: The author engages in some navel gazing when he says America has all that it needs. I'm not sure if the author has noticed it or not, but there is a such thing as globalization and the global needs for goods and services will increase as developing countries close the ground with developed nations.<p>This global recession is just another business cycle, eventually the world will have another upswing, and then we will revert to mean again. There is no magic here, just the march of time. I would not put too much stock into those who believe that a single recession merits the reevaluation of the entire modern economic system.<p><i>Edit: Trying to trim the size. Eventually, I will learn the art of not making posts into walls of text.</i>