☕ Recession hair

The optimists say, “some new need for labor always pops up” (as it did in manufacturing between 1920 and, say, 1970). But (a) you can’t see much sign of that in the tech-based industries that are on the rise – they’re just not labor-intensive – and (b) the workers that technological industries require are generally better educated than those cut ad... See more

Working in a factory or corporation in a major city was something many individuals aspired to during the early 20th century for the economic prosperity relative to a more tenuous farming life. Yet, as we’ve seen, the limit has shifted. Economic growth has stalled both for society and for us as individuals. Because of the qualitative and structural

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The fewer the manufacturing workers and engineers, the more removed everyone is from the particulars of industrial processes, and the more remote that knowledge becomes in each successive generation. We become think tankers and app designers and restaurant hosts, while the details of the industrial world become further and loftier abstractions. How... See more