In the early days, Babylonians actually turned a few inventors, like the originators of the brick-mold and the plow, into deities. In our own time, we are less worshipful, though on Thomas Edison’s death, there was an attempt to shut down the nation’s electric grid for one minute in his honor. Now, of course, as a “dead white male”, Mr. Edison’s incredible intellectual accomplishments are given parity with what some Social Studies teacher tells students about the importance of vegetarianism on a random afternoon.
When we see what real intellectuals like Deere, McCormick, and other powerful minds did in the automation of agriculture, and we see what Ford and Westinghouse did in industry, we can’t help but be stunned. In our own day, the inventors of codes and computers have had a similar affect on the world and its population. Frankly, with all the automation that’s taken place, it’s amazing that there’s any physical work left to do.
The place I work once bought an older manufacturing plant. There were dozens and dozens of shiny places in the carpet in the central open area of a huge, open office. Each represented the desk and chair of employees who worked there less than ten years ago. Our company’s sales are larger than theirs were, and we have less than half as many people in our office, a graphic illustration of the efficiency and output of computerized office procedures.
Becoming more aware of the effects of automation has made me favor a longer period of time for unemployment payments to be collected. The current 99 weeks of unemployment simply isn’t enough. In the two years that some people have been unemployed since the leftists seized control of our government, even more jobs have been replaced by automation and computerization. It’s increasingly difficult for the unemployed to catch up.
Where should the money come from? Money is made by increased efficiency. If the amount of goods and services remains constant while there’s a decrease in the number of workers needed to provide them, a nation’s wealth has not diminished, but is in need of redistribution.
Leftists never mention this obvious fact. It is so obvious that some wonder why. Those on the left tend to be pseudo-intellectuals, rather than real intellectuals. The poor things can’t bear to admit that if it were were shown that the most intelligent and imaginative people were responsible for the entire citizenry’s longer vacations, higher pay, and much longer (even lifetime!) unemployment payments, the less-intelligent leftists would be able to make no claim and take no credit for providing any of these benefits. They would not be able to feel important, nor to justify the huge salaries they get for complaining about Imaginary Problems.
If people understood how comparatively unintelligent such people are, they would tell leftist pseudo-intellectuals: “Go away, you useless dummies!” They would vote for policies allowing the smarter be free to do even more for them.
No leftist could bear for that to happen. So, freedoms must be curtailed. Otherwise, people enjoying greater prosperity might endanger a species of beetle, somewhere in Patagonia.
