Thinking Outside the Box

[This is a comment I posted at Market Place on March 28, 2012 in reaction to a series of stories that they did on the effect that increasing use of robots is having on the economy. I point out that they are missing the bigger picture...] As much as I have enjoyed David Brancaccio's reporting over the years, I have to comment that he (or his writers, I cannot tell which) are missing a much bigger story about what is going on here -- and it will have dramatic consequences for our economy, and broader society, if it is not recognized, resisted and reversed. More than the hollowing out of middle class jobs, the imperative to shrink labor costs at all costs has become the drumbeat of modern capitalism, creating what economists refer to as "increasing structural unemployment." What this means is increasing unemployment, decreasing aggregate demand, a shrinking tax base, etc; in short, a vicious downward spiral. (If only the Occupy Movement would start making these connectio