Don't Worry About Peak Oil, Worry About Peak Youth

[Kinser79]

(05-19-2016, 10:25 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: We will probably see people working longer into elderhood. Retirement isn't what it is cracked up to be.

Retirement has always been over rated.

Quote:The big problem for an economy will be a shortage of young adults to work cheaply. Maybe automation will solve that. I can imagine the Automat getting a revival as the kids who do fast-food counter work are no longer around in adequate quantities. Maybe the work might as easily be done by people of low intelligence as by smart teenagers (who have the bonus of physicality on the job).

Actually a great deal of those jobs will be filled by the elderly who will by benefit of Social Security be able to afford to live on part time. That said, automation is coming, Wendy's is experimenting later this year with self-service kiosks for ordering.

Quote:Let's look at the good side. Unemployment will be lower. There won't be as much cheap labor.

Only if one at the same time prevents the importation of cheap labor. The best way to raise wages is to restrict the labor market. Sounds like an argument for Trump to me.

Quote: Crime, heavily a youth phenomenon, will be far lower. Older workers are generally more cautious, so there will be fewer industrial accidents (until one starts having people pst 75 in the workplace).

Crime is not restricted to youth. Violent crime figures may be lower though because older people have in general a lower propensity toward violence. As for there being fewer industrial accidents I think you over state the cautiousness of older workers. Some of them don't realize they aren't 40 any more.