Comments by "Brenda Rua" (@brendarua01) on "Political common ground in a polarized United States | Gretchen Carlson, David Brooks" video.

They have touched on the modern fundamental contradiction of capitalism in the US. We are still a consumer based economy. But industry wants to cut costs and increase productivity by replacing people (consumers) with machines. Each company thinks if it converts first then they will maximize their profits on the backs of other companies while they still employ people. This is the modern tragedy of the commons. But the commons is working people and families. Henry Ford knew this. Too bad the panel did not delve deeply enough to offer even the hint of solutions. Otherwise I thought both offered very telling insights into how the US (and the west in general) has got to where we are. Thank you TED. Much to think about!
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+Mellamosean I think we agree about the pressures driving automation. But I'm not clear about your position on the fundamental contradiction involved. You seem to suggest that the losses of jobs and income are limited to a few isolated sectors. If so that might weaken the impact of the problem but not remove it. I believe the impact on workers is more deep and wide than you seem to believe. NPR News Hour has been discussing the topic for several weeks now. No less a conservative than David Brooks points out in response to Trump's claims about bringing jobs back, that 70% have been lost to automation. Only 30% have gone overseas. The All Things Considered show recently did a series looking at a Wisconsin town that lost their auto plant. An interview with the woman directing the local community college job retraining program was very enlightening about the minimal success they had. I was astounded to hear that on average those who did not go through retraining did better than those who had. A big problem was that employers with positions open wanted experience as well as education. Given the radical changes in job functions that many had, the employers were discounting the prior experience. Are you accounting for the ripple effect when you talk about an isolated group and retraining? Roughly 3,000 jobs were lost at the auto plant when the manufacturer moved production. Estimates are that another 9,000 were lost when businesses that supported the plant or provided services to the plant workers failed. This is not a new phenomenon. The "rust belt" is rife with case studies. I don't know how to cite broadcast materials or I would do that. Perhaps we can learn to do these things better. Perhaps we need to move to a minimum guaranteed income. But these things are only band-aids. They do not address the fundamental flaws. The companies that automate early will do ok relative to those that do not because they have a market among the employees of the latter. But the slower companies will need to automate to be competitive or go out of business. Either way workers lose, and then the businesses start to fail. That is the classic tragedy of the commons updated for today.
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