August 15, 2021
THE DEFLATIONARY EPOCH:
The unemployed may never come back. Here's what that means for the economy. (Andy Kiersz, 8/15/21, Business Insider)
Real GDP recently surpassed its pre-pandemic peak, but as of July there are still about 5.7 million fewer employees on payrolls in the US than there were in February 2020.That means the US economy is making and selling as much stuff as it was in 2019, but with nearly 6 million fewer workers. This suggests a big increase in productivity.
Removing the labor component from production costs is the most important moment in economic history, which is just about the creation of wealth. Of course, it does mean that we need to accept alternative ways--other than labor--of distributing wealth.
Posted by Orrin Judd at August 15, 2021 12:00 AM