Monday, September 15, 2003

I Thought it Was Just Me

Ever since the U.S. economy started it's so-called "jobless recovery I've been wondering "how the hell can it do that?" I mean, I'm no economist, and ever since my one semester of college economics I still think those curves were all done with mirrors and wires.

I kept asking myself, if workers are getting more productive - and they, I mean, we are - but companies keep laying off workers, who's going to be able to afford to buy all that stuff we've so efficiently made? Here in the Rochester, NY area, XEROX, Kodak, Bausch & Lomb, Delco and lots of smaller companies have layed off over 3,000 people over the past year or two.

Anyway, it was bugging me. I must have missed something in that econ course; some magical point on all those damn curves where jobs could disappear, the remaining workers would make more product per hour, and everyone could afford to refinance their house or buy a new one. As usual lately, I had to go to a news source outside the U.S. to get the answer.

This article in the Globe & Mail (Canada's newspaper of record) explains it all. To answer my own question, above: You can't. Not for long.

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