Re:How Dumping TV Allowed Me to Quit My Job
by electromagnetic on Friday April 24, 2009 @04:42PM
(#578185)
In the immediate, yes there's a very finite number of jobs. If there was an unlimited supply of jobs, not a single person in the world would be unemployed.
Jobs are tied to the economy, until the economy grows there can't be more jobs. The system might handle a flux of 10% new workers (either from a bizarre immigration mistake or a ton of people working over time or double full-time jobs) however, resources are finite. All 300 million people in the USA can't overnight get a second job.
In certain sectors there's probably great ease in getting a second job. However, there's not 300 million minimum wage jobs going.
I agree with that point, and perhaps I was a little callous in my original (grandparent) comment. The demand for workers is often very inelastic because it requires someone to figure out new ways to add value that requires workers.
There is not a fixed amount of work to do. If the author of this article just watched TV instead of creating the blog network that he did, he wouldn't have put anyone out of a job.