From: Barbara Lamar (barbaralamar@sanmarcos.net)
Date: Sat Aug 23 2003 - 12:13:27 MDT
randy wrote:
> I really think that life is better than it was earlier this century
Earlier this century? You mean, like, in 2001? :-)
I think life in the U.S. is better now than it was, say, in 1950, for people
who are smart and mentally flexible, or who are able to learn a skill that
can't be economically replaced by machines. For the not-so-smart or the
inflexible or the unskilled, life is probably a bit worse now than it was
for such people in the 1950's, and unless our culture changes dramatically,
it will probably get even worse in the future.
For the employer of highly skilled individuals, there is a significant cost
associated with each additional employee, including the cost of training; it
is cheaper to have one employee who works 60 hours per week than to have two
employees doing the same work. This is so, even though efficiency drops off
when a person works too many hours without a break. So even skilled workers
have a significant risk of being unemployed at any given time, unless they
can quickly learn a new skill when the need arises.
Just my own observation, no hard statistics -- looks to me as though people
are being sorted out, by various market and political forces, into two major
groups -- the smart and flexible; and the rest. The smart and flexible group
would be comprised not only of honest, productive people but also of crafty
con artists who can and often do acheive their goals by using {the rest} in
nefarious ways.
> WHy is it that women get so upset when the plumbing
> acts up...some kind of evolutionary thing?
Yes. It's mechanically more difficult for women to discretely take a leak
into an empty milk jug.
Barbara
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