[pacala]

The question is: who needs the jobless people?

http://www.humanesociety.org/assets/pdfs/hsp/soaiv_07_ch10.p...

    Table 1
    U.S. Equine Population During
    Mechanization of Agriculture and Transportation 
    Year Number of Horses and Mules
    1900 21,531,635
    1905 22,077,000
    1910 24,042,882
    1915 26,493,000
    1920 25,199,552
    1925 22,081,520
    1930 18,885,856
    1935 16,676,000
    1940 13,931,531
    1945 11,629,000
    1950 7,604,000
    1955 4,309,000
    1960 3,089,000

[TeMPOraL]

> The question is: who needs the jobless people?

If we ever end up really asking ourselves this question it means that capitalism has been running for too long; that it grew into an entity that serves its own goals rather than ours. By that time it might be too hard to slay that particular beast though.

[shenanigoat]

Thanks. You've posted my favourite comment on the subject so far.

[damon_c]

Wait... so are you proposing a metaphor where we are the horses and mules?

[Filligree]

He didn't say so explicitly, but the horse-count is typically used in relation to this point:

What happens when the value of your work falls below the cost of subsistence? In the case of the horses, once feeding them was no longer worthwhile, the answer was simple: They didn't.

Hopefully we won't do anything similar for humans. It would be the most horrendous eugenics program of all time.

[pjc50]

This is the pretty much the stated goal of "austerity" benefits cuts. It's already starting to have the effect in the UK of disabled people starving or freezing to death due to not being able to afford to carry on living. So far in small numbers ...