Inflation mystery. An Aha! moment for me.

[kandrathe]

It actually surprised me how little was done by automation, and how much was still hand assembly.

I did say "modern". I've gone to Renaissance fairs, but I don't assume all butter is hand churned.

There are two factors slowing automation: labor unions and cost. The first is becoming less powerful as the economy becomes more globalized. The second is becoming less important as the robots themselves are being built by robots.

Might look a little strange to us, but there's no reason to think it will cause the economy to implode.

My crystal ball is broken, and I'm not a seventh son, so I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

There is good evidence showing a massive decrease in manufacturing jobs worldwide. There is also an increase in the amount of goods being manufactured, and a corresponding decrease in the the prices for these goods. Yes, some of it was outsourced to places where they pay less, and have fewer laws, but that doesn't explain the bulk of the job losses in the sector.

http://economistsview.typepad.com/econom...e_in_.html

The question I have is whether all these blue collar workers retrained themselves into engineers, or fry cooks.