Grand New Party
Will Your Children Grow Up To Be Servants And Nannies?
Reihan Salam, 07.23.10, 6:00 AM ET

 

 

Will large numbers of today's children grow up to become servants and nannies in the homes of the digital bourgeoisie? There is good reason to believe that the answer is yes.

The most pressing issue of the day remains sky-high unemployment. There is, however, almost no consensus about how to think about the the depth of the problems facing the U.S. labor market. Many believe that the staggering unemployment rate is purely cyclical. Karl Smith, an economist at the UNC School of Government, has written a post on "the myth of structural unemployment," arguing that "the structure of the American economy hasn't changed that much in the last 24 months."

Yet one wonders if the last 24 months are the right place to look. In Wired for Innovation, MIT economist Erik Brynjolffson and Adam Saunders of Wharton offer an insightful portrait of how the U.S. economy has evolved over the last decade. Their analysis strongly suggests that the shift toward a more IT-intensive economy will lead to even more polarization of the U.S. labor market. Brynjolffson has dubbed the "Great Recession" a "Great Restructuring," adding gravitas to arguments advanced by thinkers like Jeff Jarvis and Richard Florida who've argued in a similar vein. "As growth resumes," Brynjolffson writes, "millions of people will find that their old jobs are gone forever."  See forbes.com for more...

 

Yikes!!!