correlationstonone:

squashedcomments:

If we’ve got an unemployed rocket scientist, is there any reason to push her to take a job at McDonalds?

Does unemployment result from a need for different skillsets and salary expectations, write large? Absolutely. If you believe unemployment in America is partially the consequence of the fact that Americans did jobs that we don’t need them to do anymore (mortgage sales, carmaking, retail, etc.) as I do, this is a perfectly reasonable result. No thanks on the rockets - how about you cook some burgers? I, economy, no longer desire rockets but still desire burgers.  I, economy certainly no longer desire homebuilding.

When the economy picks up again, we’ll need her to do more rocket science.

Note: this is a statement of hope.  Maybe we will need rocket scientists again someday, but it’s entirely possible we won’t.  We certainly don’t need coopers, or lamp-lighters; economic needs change and demand is not something that exists in a vacuum.  We don’t need all the English majors to become novelists, either. There are plenty of novels and novelists. Some of the English majors are going to have to do something else, forever.

We have other people to do the McDonalds job.

We’ve also got you, WORTHLESS_SKILLSET_OWNER_01. The difference between someone who has never received an education and someone who has received an education in a no-longer-worthwhile topic is nil. I know an awful lot about ‘90’s rock bands - that doesn’t mean I’m employable on that basis. Fortunately for my health, I also know a lot about private placements.

Pushing the rocket scientist out of unemployment simply pushes the suffering further down the ladder and encourages people to take jobs where their talents will be wasted.

Maybe their talents are wasted already. This pushes people to take some job, any job, to eat. That’s because you’re actually a slave, Squashed, unless you own the factory.

As it is, this is just jerking away the only money two million people have just in time for the holidays.

Kiss the ring. All five gold ones.

It’s probably worth pointing out that this was the topic that this year’s Nobel Prize in economics was awarded for. The funny part is the rocket scientist vs. burger flipper was used as a canonical example.