@Frank Apisa,
@ Georgeob1 (regarding the info I promised)
George, I’m sorry, but apparently I never posted the series I wrote on this issue in A2K. I have posted it in other forums and have given it other publicity (Milton Friedman was kind enough to read it and comment to me on it.). It is a long, five part series…and I think it might be better if I simply mention a couple of the salient points—to see if you have any interest (Some of this is extracted from the series.)
First point (I expect you will not have trouble agreeing with this): I acknowledge I personally am not intelligent nor clever enough to “solve” a problem like the one being discussed…and I am not disposed to pretend that I can. I limit myself to presenting alternative perspectives of some components of the overall problem in hopes of sparking an insight in someone more intelligent and clever than I…one that might ultimately lead to a solution.
An example of such an “alternative perspective” (one which may seem trivial at first, but which I suggest is not) is to reflect on why we consider “the unemployment problem”…to actually be a problem.
“Unemployment” is NOT a problem…or at least, for most people it is not a problem. “Unemployment” is the reason we all look forward to weekends, holidays, and vacations so much. “Unemployment” means not going to work. “Unemployment” affords us all time to play more golf or tennis; to read, write, wash the car, tend to the house and garden, spend more time with the family, or lie around in a hammock doing nothing more productive than training a couple of trees to bend in toward each other. Not only is unemployment not a problem, it is the stuff of dreams…an object of pursuit. Some people actually stand in long lines at lottery counters in order to try to create some unemployment for themselves.
Now, for sure, “not having enough money to buy things” IS a problem; an onerous one, and more than likely the problem we are actually considering when apparently discussing unemployment! They go hand-in-hand, do unemployment and not having enough money to get by—so much so that we tend to confuse one with the other—or worse, to consider them to be one. BUT THEY ARE NOT! They are two separate problems, or more exactly they are two separate conditions. One, not having enough money, a very serious problem indeed—the other, unemployment, a much sought after blessing.
George, I suspect that we can use the fact that those two conditions are not both problems to make a pathway to a solution.
Obviously, there is much, much more…and without the rest, this may appear to be of no value. But whether you see it to be of value or not…I stand by my initial comment that we will never train our way out of the problem at hand…and that “earning a living” is probably a thing of the past—even though we do not acknowledge that yet.