Why have all of the efficiencies resulting from modern invention and technology not given a better life for everyone?

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There is a question that has been playing in my mind. Why is it that with all of the myriad efficiencies that have been introduced into the world by modern technology and invention — from the steam engine to modern tractors and farm equipment to the telephone, computers, the internet, and the modern robots employed in modern factories — many people in our modern world are still living on the edge, living very insecure lives in an ugly day-to-day struggle? This is not just true in the USA but also in other wealthy industrialized countries like Japan, Korea, and China. Many people in rich countries live in an ugly, competitive, dog-eat-dog rat race — always with the possibility of job-loss and personal calamity just around the corner. In China, Taiwan, Korea, and Japan the competition in schools is really intense. It is all about getting the right degrees and ultimately about jobs and money. With all of the gains in productivity from all our modern inventions and technology, should not all of those gains reveal themselves in improvements in the lives of the common man? Science and technology have given us great gains in regard to the cost of producing food — gains coming not only from modern mechanized farming methods but from fertilizers and genetically improved grains. The modern liberal would probably say that the reason we don’t see all the gains from modern technology is that all of the gains are going to the rich and that the answer is to take from the rich and give to the poor. However, due to competition, most businesses and corporations work on very thin margins. One is always hearing of another big company that is going bankrupt due to competition. I could list dozens of companies that have gone bankrupt in recent years. (Think of Montgomery Ward, K-Mart and Sears. It is all about competition and ability to compete.) I think the way a lot of people get rich is by being lucky enough to have invested in stocks of the right companies — companies like Microsoft or Apple or Amazon — when they were just starting. The phenomenon involves mechanisms associated with mass psychology. But many people also become rich and then, later, suddenly poor as happened in the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s or the stock market bubble of the late 1920s.

Why is it that even in rich countries many people in unskilled or low-skilled jobs live precarious, insecure lives? It has to do with the law of supply and demand. If there is an overabundance of labor in a particular labor niche, the price for labor in that niche will be low. (On the other hand if there is a scarcity of labor in a particular niche, the price will be high.) If there is an abundance of unskilled labor, the price for unskilled labor will be low. It is a simple fact of life that businessmen will not voluntarily pay more than they have to for labor. (If they did competitors would hire cheaper labor and undercut them on price — or companies in foreign countries with lower wage scales would undercut them on price.) Liberals might propose minimum wage laws to remedy this. But if you enact minimum wage laws employers may respond by automating more of the operations, reducing their labor force as much as possible, and refusing to hire young, inexperienced workers (who require training).

I note that in the United States a large portion of the semi-skilled or unskilled jobs are eagerly taken by motivated illegal immigrants from Latin America while, at the same time, 7 million working age American men (white and black) between the ages of 25 and 54 are unemployed (and unemployed by choice since we are in a labor shortage) — living by some means or other (such as living with their parents, living off government disability payments, living with wives who work, living with girlfriends who work, living with government supported single women, etc.). Many others resort to illegal activities such as selling drugs. When asked why they don’t work they reply, “I don’t work for just any wage! The pay is not high enough!” They don’t want to work and are angry if you ask them why they are not working.

Latins come up here from a hard life in Latin America and are very, very happy to have work. In fact they pay coyotes fees of $5000 or $6000 to smuggle them across the border. And if they get caught they pay another fee and try again. We are like the Promised Land. They work and then send money back to their families in Latin America.

Americans are so soft from such easy childhoods that they resent work, hate work, and hate the country.

See

Record Millions Of US Adults Giving Up On Ever Finding Work | Nicholas Eberstadt

7 Million American Males Refuse to Go to Work (Here's Why) - Dave Ramsey Rant

This is Why People Don't Want to Work Anymore

Read the comments for the videos.

The idea has occurred to me that those years of weekly government checks and free government food that happened under COVID may have created bad habits for a lot of people. And bad habits can be hard to break. It is hard to go back to an unpleasant, hated job after having had the wonderful experience of government largesse and lazily laying around and playing video games for eight hours a day for a couple years.

I guess the truth is that if you haven’t managed to get some specialized knowledge and skills in some specialized niche where good jobs can be found the type jobs available to you are mostly bottom-of-the-ladder type jobs that lead no-where and promise no future. There may be lots of those kinds of jobs but the turnover in them is probably high and the idea of working in such jobs for the rest of your life is probably depressing. I can understand how life could come to look very bleak in such a situation. Bleak enough to cause one to try to figure out some way to get enrolled in some government disability program (federal, state or local) or find some woman to support him.

It all comes down to a basic fact of life: Life can be hard. It takes character to deal with it.

I believe that most people if given the opportunity to live off government welfare would quickly take it. It would be an offer they just couldn’t refuse. There is nothing like just lying around all day drinking sodas and playing video games. If the government offers a free ride, everyone will get into the queue. That is why there are so many people on welfare. When having an illegitimate child is a ticket to a free ride you can expect a lot of illegitimate children. But I ask this question: Why should I support you? If you are on welfare then I am pulling the cart and you are riding.

Let us ask this question. What is the natural way? How do things work in the natural world? In what species of animal, bird, or other creature do parents take care of their offspring after they have reached maturity? After a young bird reaches a certain stage of maturity the parents stop bringing it food and it climbs out on a limb and flies off. After that it is on its own and it has to depend on its own resources to make it in life. A mother bear takes care of its young up to a certain stage and then it leaves them. After that they have to take care of themselves. There are no welfare systems in the natural world. There it is survive by your own resources, instinct and good sense or die. Perhaps we can learn from the natural world. There is no sentimentality in nature. There you act bravely and intelligently or die.

If people look around them and see that life can be really hard and rough then perhaps they should start using their brains, start thinking. Perhaps there are measures or strategies they can take to make life easier. Perhaps there is some occupation they might really like and perhaps there is some way they could get into it. In life you have to be self-reliant, independent and pro-active. It is very helpful to think. You shouldn’t be depending on the love of your mother.

I don’t really believe that the problems of bad job situations are the worst problems in life. I think psychological problems are much worse than job problems. From my own experience, observations, and from what I have read and heard I believe that a very large portion of humanity is afflicted with psychological problems. I think this is true for all countries. And I think psychological problems are usually a lot worse to live with than job problems.

I think most people are responsible for most of their own problems. When you start doing foolish things like drinking, taking drugs, watching pornography, and living promiscuously you can’t expect good consequences. See Ninety five percent of the problems that most people have come from personal foolishness.

In oriental countries such as Japan, Taiwan, Korea, and China great emphasis is placed on schooling and most children attend private cram schools (which the parents have to pay for) in addition to their regular schools. And after cram school the children then spend several hours every day doing work assignments before going to bed — making for a very long, hard day. Life in these countries for school children is very competitive and hard. And, after secondary school, there is great competition to get into the best universities. (Belief in hard work is part of the culture in these oriental countries. Their value system is the reason these students are such good students. And in these countries children don’t start dating until they are in their early twenties. Their culture guides them and it has good sense.)

As here, the oriental children are told that a university education is the way to a good job. And, as here, after graduating, young people may send out hundreds of applications without getting any response. If times are bad, there may be one job for every hundred applicants. And if the college graduates can’t find jobs they may find themselves homeless, sleeping under bridges. And then the students start wondering if all of the time and money spent on their education was worth it. If what they studied was a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) subject it probably was. Otherwise, probably not.

Life can be dark and hard.

Now people are talking about all of the promises of AI (Artificial Intelligence) that lies just around the corner. What kind of future do you think that will bring? How will it impact jobs and job opportunities?

I do have sympathy for the young people of today. I think the price of housing in much of the country is just way too high. The price of houses in our area is over $500,000 and I think it is over $300,000 in much of the country. The price of both housing and rent is a function of supply and demand. Where demand is high, prices are high. Where demand is low, prices are low. There are parts of the country where houses are very cheap but I think it is in areas where there are few jobs and wages are low. Where there are good paying jobs, many jobs, the price of housing and rent is likely to be high. Politicians talk about the problems of the high cost of rent and the way it causes homelessness. Do they have any good answers? I don’t think so. They talk of rent controls. Rent controls will only cause people not to buy or invest in rental properties in that area. Rent control represents an attempt to circumvent economic law and the long term effect of doing that will be counterproductive. It will result in a dwindling stock of rental property and deteriorating properties due to landlord neglect.

What determines the price of housing in a particular area? The law of supply and demand. If everyone is of the belief that owning a house is the best financial investment that one can find, as when house prices have been steadily rising for a period of years, this creates a demand for houses and the price of houses tends to go up. If, on the other hand, house prices start dropping in value, people become less inclined to buy and prices keep dropping. It is similar to the mechanism of the stock market bubble. See The stock market .

The price of housing in an area is influenced by the cost of land. A shortage of land and high land prices will be reflected in high house prices.

Easy credit, banks approving house loans with small down payments and low mortgage rates even for people with poor credit will cause a bustling housing market and house prices to rise.

Back in the early 2000s we had a housing bubble. Renters who were always late in their payments were buying houses. The bubble peaked around 2006, after a rapid increase in house prices, fueled by loose lending standards and low interest rates. That was then followed by a sharp decline in house prices and the 2008 financial crisis.

With all this said, I would say, however, that main determiner of house prices in an area is the average household income in that area. If one assumes sensible lending standards, the housing market in an area is like an auction where people bid as much as they can afford. If their household income goes up they are able to bid more. Households with high income are able to bid more and buy the more expensive houses. That determines the price of the more expensive houses. The income of middle income households in a particular area determine the price of the mid-priced houses in that area. Today it is usual for both husband and wife to work. If both work, they are able to pay more for a house than if only one works. A hundred years ago it was customary for the husband to work and the wife to stay home and take care of the children. Most households were single-income households. With only a single income people aren’t able to pay as much for a house and so the price of the average house was much less.

So what causes outrageous house prices? High average household incomes. In a way it is like a treadmill. If, in a society, both husbands and wives start working and increase the average household income, then the price of housing simply goes up and absorbs the extra income. So today both husband and wife have to work to achieve the same standard of living as a family of a hundred years ago.

What would I do if I were a young person and just getting started? I think I would consider living in a truck with a camper top or in a van. Or even in a tent. Or I would look for a room. Or I would buy a small parcel of land and build a small cabin on it (or put a used house trailer on it).

See

Self-sufficient Country Living

How cheaply can one eat?

On how little cash income can one live?

There are a lot videos on YouTube on RV living. See YouTube “cheaprvliving bob wells”.

I just watched the following documentary:

The Price of Milk: Immigrants Behind American Dairy | CBS Reports

I think this video is well worth watching. I think it gives a lot of insight into this question of illegal immigration in America and all of the talk of sending all illegal immigrants back to their home countries. A farmer in the video stated that it was virtually impossible to find an American who was willing to work on a farm. He said Americans appear to feel that this kind of work is beneath them.

I grew up on a dairy farm. My father, my brother, and I milked 24 cows morning and evening every day for years. I spent a great deal of time on a tractor. The farm was my world for many years. See About myself.

I think this video gives a lot of insight into what America has become. It gives insight into the character of the younger generation of Americans (they are just not much inclined toward any kind of manual labor or, in general, working very hard). It is not just in the dairy industry. It is in all kinds of manual labor. The construction industry, for example. All of the people doing landscaping work and lawn mowing in our area are Latin. I think most of the people doing housecleaning type work, as in hotels and motels, are Latin.

And I think all this gives a lot of insight into the characters of people of foreign lands who come here to make a new life. They are people who are willing to work. They are motivated. Of course some of the people who come in illegally are criminals. But the vast majority are not.

Considering how unwilling Americans are to work, we really do need these illegal immigrants.

What has happened here in America? Perhaps the following gives insight.

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ON LUXURY

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Luxury makes a man so soft that it is hard to please him and

easy to trouble him; so his pleasures at last become his

burden. Luxury is a nice master, hard to be pleased.

Mackenzie

Fell luxury! More perilous to youth than storms or quicksands,

poverty or chains.

H. More

Avarice and luxury, those pests which have ever been the ruin

of every great state.

Livy

It was a shrewd saying, whoever said it, "The man who first

bought ruin on the Roman people was he who pampered them by

largesses and amusements."

Plutarch

Luxury is the first, second and third cause of the ruin of

republics. It is the vampire which soothes us into a fatal

slumber while it sucks the life-blood of our veins.

Payson

On the soft bed of luxury most kingdoms have expired.

Young

Where necessity ends, curiosity begins; and no sooner are we

supplied with everything that nature can demand then we sit

down to contrive artificial appetites.

Johnson

Whenever vanity and gaiety, a love of pomp and dress,

furniture, equipage, buildings, great company, expensive

diversions, and elegant entertainments get the better of the

principles and judgments of men and women there is no knowing

where they will stop, nor into what evils, natural, moral or

political, they will lead us.

John Adams

War destroys men, but luxury destroys mankind; at once corrupts

the body and the mind.

Crown

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11 Mar 25