Articles continue to proliferate about the “labor shortage” and the rising economic costs associated with the higher pay and increased benefits that have resulted. The shortage is little understood because the causes are complex and include: Deaths; Retirements; Family Needs; Upskilling; Immigration; Side Hustles; Gambling; New Businesses; Health Issues; Changed Habits; and the Search for a Better Life. The pressures exerted by these causes have led to the absence of available workers. At the same time, businesses have increasingly added robots and complex automation software to their operations, steadily shrinking the size of the workforce needed, with entire stores and factories operating without and requiring only enough trained employees to maintain the software and repair the robots.
What happens when workers’ reluctance to accept jobs crosses with the technology that eliminates those jobs? The historical tension between capital and labor will become more strained. As the job market continues to contract, some system will need to be created that grants money to individual consumers to their spending can continue to support the economy – that is, a system that enables consumers to have enough money to buy all the things the robots make and to access all the services the automation offers.