Labor Shortage 11
(August 30, 2007)
Karen Mattonen, the much maligned author of
There is no (pending) labor shortage! Get over it…,
suggests that the labor shortage is pure falderal. In her view, grandma
and and grandpa are both cause and solution to the demographic shifts
ahead. By postponing retirement and reducing consumption, baby boomers
ruin the party and save the day.
She goes on to suggest that hysteria, like
that surrounding the Y2K problem, is really at the root of the subject.
She assures us that most people get hysterical over nothing. I guess
that proves that there's no labor shortage.
Karen doesn't really bother to address
the imbalance between the output of our education system and the
requirements of the economy. She misses the fact that the population of
the United States is growing but may be out of balance with our
requirements for economic growth. She bypasses the real underlying
question: how important is growth.
Like many in the media, Mattonen prefers
uninformed simplicity to subtle and complex analysis. Just keep your old
people from retiring and you'll be sitting pretty while the competition
is crying about the labor shortage.
Oh, what was that?
Yup, she says there's no labor shortage
if you get the right people and treat them very well. If you do that
then your competitors will be the ones with a labor shortage.
Well, duh.
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