The US economy is booming, yet jobs are the scarcest they’ve been in many years. But what starts as a simple question – where did the jobs go? – leads to some big and surprising discoveries about the bizarre and upside-down nature of today’s economy.

    • happybadger [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      21 hours ago

      I'm hopeful for a revival of the New Deal job corps programmes. The Federal Art Project was the best thing to happen to artists in centuries, the Civil Conservation Corps did what I think the military should be, rural electrification brought most of the country into the 20th century. That won't come from the current crop of democrats though. We'll have the choice between training chatbots or dying in Iran.

      • 30_to_50_Feral_PAWGs [she/her]
        ·
        16 hours ago

        Best we can do is small-scale, means-tested public works programs outsourced to private firms that are run by Pell Grant recipients who have operated a small business in an economically underprivileged area while maintaining net positive year-over-year profits for at least five years jokermala

        • happybadger [he/him]
          hexagon
          ·
          20 hours ago

          The chatbots will exist to notify family members of troop deaths and provide them a one month free trial of Grief Counseling Premium+. You will teach the computer to sound sad instead of horny and encouraging.

          • MeetMeAtTheMovies [they/them]
            ·
            16 hours ago

            The scene from The Messenger where they tell the dead soldier’s wife that he’s dead in front of her dad who didn’t know they were married but instead of Woody Harrelson it’s Anthropic McClaude