So high unemployment starts with cultural factors limiting competitiveness such as ratting by family ties not performance or education. Then other things are added for more protection.

“Bentham’s goal of the greatest good for the greatest number” cannot be realized “for two reasons, each sufficient by itself. The first is a theoretical one. It is not mathematically possible to maximize for two (or more) variables at the same time. This was clearly stated by von Neumann and Morgenstern (3), but the principle is implicit in the theory of partial differential equations, dating back at least to D’Alembert (1717-1783).”

From “The Tragedy of the Commons” by Garrett Hardin, Science 13 December 1968, Vol. 162 no. 3859 pp. 1243-1248, http://www.sciencemag.org/content/162/38 59/1243.full.

Administrative law has been proposed (Hardin, same paper) as the best of a bunch of bad and dubiously effective solutions to any problem, such as the above conundrum studied by Giuliano and colleagues, for which there is no technical solution. Hence, you could say that John Lennon, who said “There are no problems, only solutions,” was not only a dreamer, but that, as Yoko Ono said, “The dream is over.”

Put another way, pick your poison: family, the market, government, mob rule, or some cocktail that mixes some of each. I suggest we try to hit the toilet when we react to the side effects.

hmm,……some how that implies that we should all be lowering our wages, to compete with Chinese and indian labor.

we should accept the fact that robotics, and other highly capitalized tools have a natural right to our incomes.

some of the assumptions in this article are questionable.

In “modern” centralized authority, “socialized” or even “socialist” States, systematic steps have been taken as a matter of policy to weaken families as a prime building block of society. Instead of “blood” tying and binding people together in mutually protective groups, the State (and whoever happens to control it at the moment) presumes to take responsibility for family members. The family heirarchy is not only obsolete but a bar to “progress”. The State tells who who is in your group. It is not up to you. The State will take care of you in need. The State commands your ability to fight, both physically and financially, rather than your family. When you need support, you can depend on the State.

Just ask the Greeks how reliable the State is. Ask Americans, with their bankrupt Ponzi scheme “retirement” and “health insurance” schemes used to fund aggressive pointless wars. And now ready to abandon their “children” because they cannot “afford” to keep their “obligations” and do other things they want.

No, the lesson of the modern world is that Governments are highly unreliable as providers of protection and security, but excellent at making false promises and taking the public’s money with fraudulent intent. The last thing anyone anywhere on this planet needs is stronger central authority and weakened families. Individuals stand a chance with their own families, but no chance at all with someone else’s Government.