I hope Prof. Spence will get a little further out front on the need for new statutory limits on the length of the work day to compensate for the fall in the demand for labor due to automation and new labor-saving technologies.
The eight-hour day and five-day work week were a successful response to similar technological advances a century ago.
I agree with the main thrust of Mr. Stiglitz's article but would like to add that economist also share part of the blame. I am thinking of their failure to warn of the probably effects of Nafta, Gatt, and China's admittance to the WTO on the distribution of income in America. [See here: http://tinyurl.com/75d8a2y ] I don't blame the corporations for taking advantage of these changes however. The do what they gotta do to survive in the marketplace under the rules of the game. As for solutions I prefer GET for GATT -- ie, wage subsidies financed by a graduated expenditure tax as an alternative to protective tariffs (though both may be necessary, at least in the short-run).
In other words the solution is political -- and just at the moment when organized labor is losing its last teeth. We need a new form of organized labor -- a New Labor Party -- to represent the interests of working people of all races and religions if we expect to change the rules in Washington.
Technology and the Employment Challenge
I hope Prof. Spence will get a little further out front on the need for new statutory limits on the length of the work day to compensate for the fall in the demand for labor due to automation and new labor-saving technologies.
The eight-hour day and five-day work week were a successful response to similar technological advances a century ago.
The Price of Inequality
I agree with the main thrust of Mr. Stiglitz's article but would like to add that economist also share part of the blame. I am thinking of their failure to warn of the probably effects of Nafta, Gatt, and China's admittance to the WTO on the distribution of income in America. [See here: http://tinyurl.com/75d8a2y ] I don't blame the corporations for taking advantage of these changes however. The do what they gotta do to survive in the marketplace under the rules of the game. As for solutions I prefer GET for GATT -- ie, wage subsidies financed by a graduated expenditure tax as an alternative to protective tariffs (though both may be necessary, at least in the short-run).
In other words the solution is political -- and just at the moment when organized labor is losing its last teeth. We need a new form of organized labor -- a New Labor Party -- to represent the interests of working people of all races and religions if we expect to change the rules in Washington.