[emmett]

Very similar to the arguments of the Luddites: The power loom is putting workers out of a job!

Some attempt to do something which gets the unemployed back to work could be good, but trying to create make-work by using more people than a job requires is not.

[kg]

I'm definitely not in favor of creating needless jobs, and companies that can be creative and do more with less in a sustainable fashion (without creating a poor quality of life for those doing it) should be rewarded. That being said, overworking people and pushing them aside when they fall out of fashion is short sighted and will create long term problems for society as a whole.

[ovi256]

  will create long term problems for society as a whole.

Even worse, it creates an externality, a debt that society will pay for the corporation.

[yummyfajitas]

What externality does increased productivity cause?

[vl]

>I'm definitely not in favor of creating needless jobs

Most jobs are already needless. Consumerism helps to keep wheels turning. As the time goes, situation is going to get worse. The question is how society is going to get restructured if 80% of its workforce can't produce anything viable anymore (i.e. produced cheaper without involving said workforce)?

[hga]

Indeed; I've been reading this same spiel as long as I can remember reading the business press and the like, back to sometime in the '70s.

[CodeMage]

The article is not about trying to "create make-work by using more people than a job requires". It's about cutting costs by not hiring all the people a job requires as full-time employees. Full-time employees are entitled to better treatment and benefits than temps and contractors. Also, offshore full-time employees cost a fraction of US employees. That's what the article is about.

Personally, I think the article is refreshing because of its no-nonsense and no-bullshit approach. I've been in too many corporations that keep telling us employees how much they love us while creating an increasingly hostile environment at the same time.

[ovi256]

Make work is useless, that's for sure, but a part of the arguments of the luddites stands, as it was against the upheaval of social structures, not technological structures. Unfortunately, these two are closely tied, and technological progress will lead to social upheaval, mainly what we call today structural unemployment.

Sure, you automate the factory, so you fire the workers, but they're not machines or work animals that can just be put out of their misery. The capitalist approach is that their working wage is large enough for them to save money to tide them over. Well, look how well that works in practice. What's the average household debt in the US ?

[madair]

There is actual social effect. Calling out "Luddites!!!" every time an attempt is made to discuss and address the risks and balances to economic and technology progress may be masking self-denial about responsibility and consequences?