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by toomuchtodo 1033 days ago
Perpetual labor shortages due to structural demographics and the decline of conservatism due to the 55+ death rate means this will only work so long [1] [2].

[1] https://www.axios.com/2023/08/27/labor-shortages-air-traffic...

[2] https://www.businessinsider.com/baby-boomer-retirement-surge...

1 comments

Then they'll move their factories overseas. Unions do not have a monopoly on workers.
Tariffs are an option as demographics tilt to the Left politically to encourage domestic workforce investment [1]. Capital and economic systems should serve humans, not make it straightforward exploitation for a few folks with big numbers in rows in a database [2].

China is rapidly decelerating economically because it got old so fast [3], and most of the world outside of India and Africa isn't far behind [4] [5]. TLDR Capitalism is running out of young productivity to squeeze for profits.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37052550

[2] https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/18/the-wealthiest-10percent-of-...

[3] https://www.axios.com/2023/08/26/chinas-slow-moving-economic...

[4] https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/ageing-and-...

[5] https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/fandd/issues/Series/Anal...

It's quite ironic that you say that "economic systems should serve humans" but then support "tariffs" which will significantly increase the cost of living for the aforementioned humans.
Those are two different groups of humans we are talking about.

Cheap labor benefits consumers - primarily older people who are using savings (workers get higher prices as well, but they also get higher wages, so they're likely to win on net). Tariffs benefit domestic industries at the expense [primarily] of the people on savings/fixed incomes.

How exactly are they getting higher wages if their union factory jobs are moved overseas?
The tariff is there to stop the factory from wanting to move overseas.
companies have been touting outsourcing across all industries as a solution and fear for decades. What makes it different this time?