For sure. The finance industry has plenty of bad elements and lots of unproductive activities. Things like hedge funds and high frequency traders add little value. I could spend all day talking about the benefits of securitization, and that was one of the areas that killed the economy in 2008. The home loan market does not exist without it.

The larger problem with finance and MBA styled education in general is that much of our best talent flows to private equity firms and investment banks rather than real economy, productive jobs. Luckily we have a vibrant tech sector and entrepreneurial culture that keeps the economic engine running. My undergrad is in science, and I had to go back to business school to earn a real living. Running lab equipment wasn't paying the bills very well.

This is going to reach a head pretty soon.

No way in the world 85% of job losses are due to automation.

Manufacturing jobs only paid well for a short period of time- post WW2 when every major country was either communist and/or destroyed by the war. As such, we were the only industrial game in town. But over time, manufacturing jobs do not have enough value add to pay people high wages just like the bank teller job. If/when you try to pay those folks a lot, plant managers either move to cheaper locales (easily transferable) or automate away those costs.

This is going to reach a head pretty soon.

Manufacturing is not coming back. Just like farming is not coming back. The majority of people in this country used to work in farming. Today it is 3% of the population. We grow more food than ever. We also produce more goods than ever. How you ask? Automation.

As for finance, there is a lot of misplaced efforts in that field. However, feel free to stop applying for a mortgage to buy a home or to acquire your next car in cash. Don't use PayPal or your debit card. Forget about student loans or credit cards. Don't dare buy stocks through Etrade or invest in your 401(k). Because finance is bad.

I am sure the economy would be much better off without finance.

The victims are the American People and the Republic itself.

Of course not.

If automation was so powerful that it could do that then there would be no reason to send jobs overseas. Just do it here with automation.

The victims are the American People and the Republic itself.

Many things would still be cheaper to make overseas though. Especially expensive industrial equipment.

Exactly.

The victims are the American People and the Republic itself.

A company in my industry investigated starting their own industrial city in rural China to produce their machines.

There was blood on everyone's hands with the mortgage crisis. The financial industry was to blame but so were ordinary people. I knew like I'm sure everyone else on here, a number of people that considered themselves budding Donald Trumps. Everyone was looking to get paid from real estate.

For instance they were never taught that Columbus was a slave owner.

It's funny how you can't find anyone who supports slavery in the U.S. but you can find all kinds of people who support it in foreign countries.

For instance they were never taught that Columbus was a slave owner.

It's funny how you can't find anyone who supports slavery in the U.S. but you can find all kinds of people who support it in foreign countries.

...and others who think that someone working 40 hours a week doesn't deserve a livable wage in this country too!

I'm a big dumb shitlib baby

It's funny how you can't find anyone who supports slavery in the U.S. but you can find all kinds of people who support it in foreign countries.

The victims are the American People and the Republic itself.

Boilermaker Berniebro

I'm a big fan of the working man. Not so much of the "free stuff" man.

I'm a big dumb shitlib baby

You will get no argument from me that financialization is the main culprit today.

Automation is the excuse that financiers use to mask their avarice.

In an article in the Boston Review, Susan Berger a professor at MIT makes the assertion that, “Since the 1980s, financial market pressures have driven companies to hive off activities that sustained manufacturing.” She refers to the example of the Timken Company, which was forced to split into two companies (Timken Co., IW500/299 and TimkenSteel, IW500/442) by the board of directors. The chairman argued that the company should stay together because that is how it had been able to offer high-quality products with good service support. The board overruled him based on the potential of better short-term profits.

Weird, I see Dolphin looking in my asshole

You know what's even better than a corporate owned industrial city? When they cut off the hands of the guys who work too slow.guess they

I have no data but have always felt that in the late 80's and especially 90's was when things turned. Not only high financiers but regular people got into the markets as well. Even if only via 401k accounts. Since this time it has become painfully apparrent that companies manage quarter to quarter squeezing every possible dollar for profit. Not to much was easier than move the factory to Arkansas or Indonesia etc.

The victims are the American People and the Republic itself.

I was wrong, not 85% but 87.8% due to productivity.

https://www.americanactionforum.org/pri ... ring-jobs/

"They found that, of the 5.6 million manufacturing jobs lost from 2000 to 2010, roughly 87.8 percent were due to productivity gains. Only 13.4 percent of
those job losses can be attributed to the negative trade balance."

Underlying research.

https://www2.nist.gov/sites/default/fil ... lity-1.pdf

Yet the evidence suggests there is essentially no relationship between the change in manufacturing employment and robot use. Despite the installation of far more robots between 1993 and 2007, Germany lost just 19 percent of its manufacturing jobs between 1996 and 2012 compared to a 33 percent drop in the United States. (We introduce a three-year time lag to allow for robots to influence the labor market and continued with the most recent data, 2012). Korea, France, and Italy also lost fewer manufacturing jobs than the United States even as they introduced more industrial robots. On the other hand, countries like the United Kingdom and Australia invested less in robots but saw faster declines in their manufacturing sectors.

Part of factory relocation and sending jobs overseas for here was union busting.

That's the centrist/neoliberal Democrat model. Act like a CHAMPION of unions. Send their jobs overseas. The government workers are the only ones they can't bust. Go Hillary!

The victims are the American People and the Republic itself.

Pretty piss poor graphic right there. Not saying the results would be different, but they could really do a better job gathering data than picking 50 quotes.

Pretty piss poor graphic right there. Not saying the results would be different, but they could really do a better job gathering data than picking 50 quotes.