The economy has been deteriorating since 1970, 80% of
Americans are said to be in or near poverty, and many local businesses are
disappearing. See:
What’s more, 57% of American workers surveyed reported less
than $25,000 in life savings, and 28% say they have no confidence they will
have enough money to retire comfortably.
Meanwhile, the rich are getting richer, Forbes reports. See:
And there’s not much bright light in America’s economic future.
I keep seeing new evidence of America’s rush to the
future in the loss of jobs to automation. See:
For example, my supermarket urges self-checkout with a machine
that talks to me, telling me what to do first and what to do next. And my car
is washed and waxed and dried by equipment at the automated carwash a mile down
the road from my house.
U.S. tax law makes it easy for the supermarket to recover the
money it paid for the automated equipment, making it less costly than keeping a
cashier on its payroll.
Increasingly, cars and other expensive goods—and services, including robotic surgery—are
provided in part or whole by automated equipment. That means fewer and fewer
jobs—not in the distant future but a trend under way right now. See:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/gregsatell/2013/03/12/5-trends-that-will-drive-the-future-of-technology/
The automobile industry is leading the world’s manufacturers
into increasingly automated assembly plants. See:
America’s jobless problem is only in part explained by
mistakes in political and economic decisions made since 1970. See:
Economically, the future doesn’t look good. As long as people
have money to buy stuff with little or no human involvement, manufacturers will
make more and more and more money by paying fewer and fewer people to do work.
Corporate stock will be sure to rise in value and price as ever-fewer customers
can find the money needed to buy the products produced by the corporations. The
unemployed poor don’t buy much.
Henry Ford foresaw the problem early on, in the very
beginnings of his assembly lines. Before automation became a social problem in the making of his cars, he saw the solution:
Make it possible for workers to buy a Ford of their own. He raised wages, and his factory parking
lots gradually filled up with recently purchased Ford motor cars.
In our automated future, how will America’s dwindling
workforce obtain the money to buy not just cars but anything that costs money?
The automation problem has barely come clearly into view, and already we’re
becoming a jobless nation. How to buy even life’s necessities when your income
falls to zero? Must you sell your
food stamps to the highest bidder?
I wish I had all the answers, but I do have one. Learn to invest. When you buy a
company’s common stock, you become a part owner. Stocks, like most other
securities, pay dividends and thus
provide cash that you can convert into food, housing, healthcare, education,
movie tickets, ball-game admissions, long weekends away from home, and
eventually long and longer vacations.
Fortunately, some others are exploring the disappearance of
jobs and trying to find solutions. See:
Your job as a DIY manager of your own investment portfolio
will give you important work to do and a skill to teach your kids and
grandkids. As the companies whose stock you own become richer and richer, your
dividend income will increase and the stocks you own will become increasingly
valuable family assets.
How will you learn to invest? This blog is one small part of
the answer. Think of what you are reading here as a lecture in a how-to-invest
course. Think of the accompanying links as your homework. Between those two
resources, you’ll find much or most or possibly even all of what you need to
know to be self-sufficient and wealthy in a jobless, automated society.
As the rich get richer, you will become among them, and you
will save gas, time, and annoyance by working at home and supervising yourself.
Here’s a good first step for Day 1 of your new job:
For $29, learn how to invest as a member of the not-for-profit
American Association of Individual Investors (AAII.com). See what you’ll get
for the money at:
As I’ve pointed out in my first 100+ blog posts, the Internet
presents loads of how-to-invest content. So, there’s no shortage of good
material to supplement what you get from AAII.
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