COVID-19 is the perfect 4T event?

[David Horn]

(04-30-2020, 11:33 AM)Warren Dew Wrote:

(04-29-2020, 09:06 AM)David Horn Wrote: Ask the industry moguls, "How many workers will you rehire?"  Almost none expect to hire anywhere near the same number they had on staff before this all started, so where do their customers get their money?

If they follow through with that, that will be great, since it will mean startups will easily be able hire people without having to compete with monopolists, and small businesses will be able to grow into the areas that the big businesses are refusing to hire people to reenter.

Most of the throw-aways will not be workers needed by typical startups, unless they're looking for gig workers. In any case, why is it good to have a large pool of unemployed, just to provide a few entrepreneurs with access to cheap and ready labor? This should be the time that labor begins to rebalance the inequitable economy, and having too many looking for too few jobs is the exact opposite of what's needed to do that.

Warren Dew Wrote:Personally I doubt that the "industry moguls" will keep those promises.  Monopolists will not give up their power that easily.

Cutting the cost of labor by automation and any other means at hand is nothing new. Using a crisis to accelerate that is right out of the vulture capitalist playbook. Since we decided to put so-called venture capital in charge, companies are now literally forced to cut costs to ramp up stock prices or profits -- whichever is in vogue at the moment.