Aint that the car from The Fast And The Furious http://www.pjpowell.clara.net/Images/voo/TFATF_DVD.jpg

You might at least take the plastic off the model before shooting the picture of it.

whoops... Unless the idea of it is to have a customized car... that is just a model now... and it is so new that it is still in its plastic to represent the article.

Ideas and orginality as replacment for labor market? HMM it might work...

It certainly will cause a lot of changes, like when computers become part of our lives.

I don't agree with your view.

For one thing, it completely ignores the kinds of jobs that people work. How many "knowledge workers" do you think there are.

Intelligence, for instance, is a real issue. Half the population has an IQ less than 100. There are millions of people who are not capable of being a knowledge worker or computer programmer or repair person.

It's easy for us to live in splendid isolation around our intellectually gifted friends, computers, etc. But in the real world, most people are not white collar workers. And even if they are, a lot of those jobs are getting shipped overseas too.

I think there will be many knowledge workers. And as far as IQ is conserned I do believe there are many who succeed dispite thier inability to have overall knowledge on a test that varies depending on who makes the test.

There soon will be more 'grey collar' workers then blue collar. You will be expected to understand techology or handle multipul tasks and work in groups.


I actually believe that people are more intellegent then schools teach them to be. The people who put together a car 40 yeas ago are not the same people who put together a car today. Thier is more teamwork, design, an tech people.


And in fact I do know allot of people who did not finish Highschool but got a GED and went to a tech school or trade school and are doing fine as knowledge workers (as oppossed to sweeping floors, washing dishes, and picking up garbage of which they did before only 10 years ago)


I do agree that most people are not white collar, but I think that will change.

Aslo, if I didn't make it clear, that I think custimization is one of the key elements to the new work enviorment. Increasing worker productivity by ease of making a desktop, or program, or interface that helps in the discovery of better information and decision making.

Even now more sites are talking about customizing the site to individual visitors changing the whole look just to connect to them better. Desktops will follow.

This is why programs lik Desktop X (in piticular), Aston, and other desktop configurators will be the norm for businesses and homes 10 years from now and after.

You'll have to add me to the list of doom-sayers. I can agree to a point that a lot of people are more intellegent than schools are teaching them to be. Which is really a whole 'nuther topic, but schools clearly need to be massively revamped. That said, I think there really is only so much "knowledge work" to be done, or at least marketable, regardless of how smart people are. For example, how many people can make a living doing skins, even if everybody had Object Desktop?

Of course it is silly to say there is only a limited amount of work to do, there is always an infinite amount of work to do. The question is, how much can be sufficiently marketable to produce jobs? If food, transportation, sanitation are all automated, what else is there for the rest of the world to do, build Object Desktop skins?

Of course, the other possibility might be a fundamental redisign of society, akin to Star Trek, if humanity is capable of such a society. Where basic necessities are a given part of society and everybody is free to do their thing. But I have the strangest feeling that most people who live in such a society would, instead of reaching for the stars, probaby actually be masturbating and eating pizza and beer.

ummmmmm... beer....

...whaa.. oh yes.. what was I saying?

Maybe I am to optomistic, but I see it working for than better then for the worst.

I just feel that things will be more designed than repeatative work. And custimation of computers instead of the standard look the norm will be to customize it (not so much that there would be more skinners being hired, just more programs that allow flexability of usage and style) and that includes the GUI and UIS (User Interface Systems)



As for jobs going to other countries, is it possible that maybe 20 years from now going to another country for work will be like the commute to work today? Cheaper, faster, so I work in India and come home for dinner in the US?

But in the future, Frogboy, wouldn't they have too? I would refer to the economics of full employment, underemployment and the cycles of employment.

Frictional unemployment,and Structural employment, geographically the demand for labor changes over time. People moving from the East Coast to the West Coast looking for employment opportunities or a move from inner cities to suburban industrial parks.
Structurally unemployed need retraining, gain additional education or relocate while frictional unemployed have the skills but the jobs are not available where they live and can move to where they are available.

Cyclical Unemployment: A decline in total spending and it occurs usually at the end of a business cycle or recession

Full employment is a mixture of frictional and structural with most employed while some seeking because it take time to find a job (and money as well)

I feel that the end is basically that there are many who will move to newer employment possibilities mostly because they have too. People left Ireland because of food and unemployment. Architects get paid more working in Asia. Gold was in the west for the USA.

I can look outside my window and literally see people who might have a 100 IQ and are enterprising enough to live very well (albeit some are illegal) Some are guards, others or IT workers, some work for installation, construction, mechanics.

I would guess that many tech and vocational schools are thriving or will be... this is why.

Source: http://www.mhhe.com/economics/mcconnell15

Economics Fifthteen Edition: McConnell & Brue, Published: McGraw-Hill Irwin