Comments for Dependency Ratios Poised to Plummet In Next Two Decades at http://www.cepr.net , comment 1 to 5 out of 5 comments http://www.cepr.net Thu, 20 Jun 2013 01:03:05 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/dependency-ratios-posed-to-plummet-in-next-two-decades/#comment-1074 For business and their media puppets, there has supposedly been a shortage of labor for over 30 years. I can't tell you how tired I am of hearing it. There's just never enough highly skilled people who are willing to work for below market wages. So, business has to import cheap laborers or outsouce them in their race to the bottom of the wage scale. The shortage is of people willing to be jerked over by employers. - FoonTheElder Mon, 21 Jun 2010 07:16:14 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/dependency-ratios-posed-to-plummet-in-next-two-decades/#comment-989 There is not enough information in your graph to tell. First it uses the common but misleading practice of showing only a portion of the Y axis. The lowest number you show is .95; the highest is 1.25. Second, you only show 3 years and the first is chosen with extremely high unemployment. It would help your readers to see the full y axis and also ratios for many more years. - Erik L Tue, 15 Jun 2010 03:10:20 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/dependency-ratios-posed-to-plummet-in-next-two-decades/#comment-981 Dean, your numerical analysis ignores the key social factor. Unemployed dependents are good because they increase the supply of labor, lowering wages and helping the social position of the dominant class. Retired dependents are bad because they decrease the supply of labor, increasing wages and decreasing the social position of the dominant class. - Tom Mon, 14 Jun 2010 18:12:14 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/dependency-ratios-posed-to-plummet-in-next-two-decades/#comment-979 It's always more comforting to be frightened about some unprecedented future scenario that to think about the lack of integrity of the folks who tell us what we should be afraid of. Even scarier to think that if there ever was such a labor shortage, wages would go up (not to mention increases in productivity likely to occur between now and 2030). Speaking of productivity... why is it that "in view of the virtual unanimity of opinion among economists as to the general shape of the relationship between hours and output, that the effect of hours shortening has received so little attention in published projections"? http://www.angrybearblog.com/2010/06/five-million-jobs.html - Sandwichman Mon, 14 Jun 2010 15:38:39 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/dependency-ratios-posed-to-plummet-in-next-two-decades/#comment-978 [quote]At a time when we have the greatest oversupply of labor since the Great Depression, we are now supposed to be terrified that in a few very short years we will not have enough labor. Is that possible?[/quote] This is the new deficit hawk economic theory known as Dark Labor Gravity Waves, which explains how the supply of labor expands and contracts at the same time. While seeming to expand like the universe, labor no longer expands at a decreasing rate and like Social Security, has entered the Black Hole of No Return to contract at an increasing rate. This explains how sophisticated chants by Teabaggers can hold seeming conflicts when addressing complex subjects like a jobless recovery, such as, "Don't Just Do Something, Stand There." - izzatzo Mon, 14 Jun 2010 15:12:48 +0100