This is an interesting piece from 538

I’ve actually always hated the “jobs” buzzword. People don’t want a job, they want a lifestyle. They would prefer it be through engaging work of choice, but they often settle. When I was growing up, this difference was framed as “Job” vs “career” and if you sought a mere “job” you were a settler yourself.

As productivity increases (generally speaking a good thing) less employment is required to meet demand. There are just less manufacturing jobs, per dollar of global GDP, than there once were.

But the same automation and productivity gains are present in the service industry, or soon will be, and pretending otherwise is a 20 year punt.

We need to start doing big thinking about what a post scarcity, developed country “should” look like, and even the nordic model still sort of positions the developed world as the “front office” of a company of nations in a way that is an odd new imperialism.

It can’t be all service, entertainment, and IT for automation. When neal stephenson said the only things america still excelled at in his dark future were “Music, Movies, microcode, and high-speed pizza delivery” it was satire and presented as a state to be avoided