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User: yoder.doug

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  1. Spoken like a good Socialist on Computers, Unemployment and Wealth Creation · · Score: 1

    For every job made obsolete by increased machine-driven efficiency, there is an opportunity created for those who build the machines. It is a misguided, Marxist mentality that sees such advances as inherently bad. I guarantee you that the people who are whining that there's nothing left for them to do are the same people who were whining about how much their job sucked before the evil technology monster stole it away. It's human nature. Now, as always, there is plenty of work for everyone but there will always be a slice of humanity unwilling to do what it takes to survive. I have heard from college professor after college professor that there is a huge shortage of Americans who are willing to go to college for technology degrees. Oh, there's been a huge upsurge in people pursuing medicine and law, as well as degrees in the humanities. Ten years ago the United States was home to literally half the world's lawyers, and it's only gotten worse. You can't channel surf without bouncing off a dozen boring Law and Order or ER clones. But our technology schools are busily training non-US citizens, who go back to their countries to build widgets with the degrees they got in the US. Actual wealth comes from taking natural resources, adding value to them with our minds, then selling them and in the US we barely build anything any more. Likewise, I'm sure you can get great medical care in other countries, if you know where to go, but how is that ethical? It seems to you that it's cheaper over there, because you paid a third the US cost for a tooth extraction in Taiwan, but you're ignoring two key facts. First, the people of that poor and heavily socialized country pitched in much needed tax money to pay for the damn thing for you. Second, hard working Americans are paying way more than they should for titanium tooth posts over here, because foreign governments force US drug companies and medical manufacturers to sell wares at a tenth (yes, a tenth) of what they charge in the US. The end result is that US citizens pay the bill in increased cost of drugs and supplies. The money's got to come from somewhere. It doesn't just magically show up because someone decided "there ought to be a law." Time for a reality check, kids. Socialism has never made ANYTHING less expensive. Competition and the resultant increased efficiency are the only things that can do that.