Hey, What’d I Miss? OTE Summary, 8/20 – 8/27
Aug 27, 2012 at 10:50 am
- Considering a question about the role of government: do Americans and their elected representatives actually want a much smaller government? (Spoiler: not really.)
- Highlighting a New York Times piece listing 14 potential causes of income slump: but what about full employment?
- Laying out the flaws in Gov. Romney’s tax plan: there is not enough revenue in the base broadeners to offset the losses from the rate cuts.
- Outlining some very useful pieces on the Medicare dust up.
- Analyzing the Pew Research Center’s new report on the decline of the middle class.
- Explaining why adjusting income for family size isn’t necessarily correct.
Music: a rare Tuesday musical interlude, starring Lee Morgan circa 1967.
Bonus: a video breakdown of going over the fiscal cliff (and back?), featuring Thelma & Louise.
One Response to “Hey, What’d I Miss? OTE Summary, 8/20 – 8/27”
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About
Jared Bernstein’s areas of expertise include federal and state economic and fiscal policies, income inequality and mobility, trends in employment and earnings, international comparisons, and the analysis of financial and housing markets.
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I believe that the decline in middle-class income is largely due to increasing automation. This will start to impact more highly skilled workers as well. In fact, any knowledge-based occupation is fair game for increasing automation and robotization. For example, it may be possible for a computer to analyze body scans. Before that, it would be quite easy for a doctor in say, India to analyze the scan at a fraction of the cost. This increasing automation will disconnect a large proportion of the population from an opportunity to earn a living.