We've become too efficient for our own good

This problem goes back to the beginning of the industrial revolution. Back then it took two guys a whole day to cut down a tree. There was more work than people to do it. Horse and buggy was the order of the day. That was great for the horse breeders, carriage makers and buggy whip producers. It also provided jobs for poop scoopers and dead horse removers. Not so any more. What used to take three dozen guys a 10 hour shift 6 days a week to do can now be done in less than a day with a machine. Not saying that progress is a bad thing necessarily but it sure is putting stress on the population. Watching over the last few decades as the need for workers shrinks and with each new and more efficient method the need grows less. Steel mills that once employed thousands are now reduced to a skeleton crew all automated with one operator, a small clean up crew and a repair man or two. At one time entire floors of office buildings were filled with secretaries and typists who kept the lines of corporate communication open. Replaced with a cheap desktop and word processing app. Regular mail is dying and even the competition is feeling the pinch.

What's left when there's no need for the hoards of workers who built this country? A few glimmers of hope but manufacturing is just about gone. Service jobs are done mostly by immigrants legal or otherwise. No, it seems somebody's pulled the ladder to success up through the ceiling and onto the roof and they don't want any company up there. Really what's left? The medical field would seem to be a logical choice with an aging population but even there efficiencies have thinned the prospects. What used to take several hours to produce an xray now takes minutes and you don't need that much training with the new computer systems. There's computers. But that would take years of training and constant updating just to keep up with the changes. It's also being outsourced to far off lands at a lower cost. Even in the automotive field what used to take a high school diploma now requires ongoing high tech training. There was a time not long ago when you could do a tune up for $25 and it would take you an hour or less. Not so with today's cars. They have more computers than a NASSA rocket and good luck if your keyless entry system fails.

No we've gotten so efficient that there isn't a need for the scores of workers necessary to keep things going but there in lies the problem. No work equals no demand to produce more products which equals no work. A vicious downward cycle. But what this is doing at the moment is creating desperation and desperate people. Never before have I witnessed more scams, embezzlements, and cons. Our infrastructure is falling apart. It's time to get working before those with the knowledge die off or get too old to care.