Comment 61474

By A Smith (anonymous) | Posted March 24, 2011 at 16:11:48 in reply to Comment 61465

Since 1961, every area of our economy, including personal consumption, government consumption, government investment, residential construction, business spending on structures are essentially flat as a percent of real GDP.

The only two macro areas that have changed, have been net exports and business spending on machinery and equipment. Whereas in 1961, we imported the same as we exported, in 2008 net exports were minus 7% of GDP, while businesses spent 7% more real dollars on M/E.

What do you think happens to middle class jobs (Stelco, Westinghouse) when we start importing more stuff, while simultaneously replacing workers with automation?

Furthermore, since 1961, payroll taxes have gone from 3.92% of total government income to 11.15%. Throw in workers comp premiums, minimum wage laws, difficult firing protocols and tax credits for companies to upgrade equipment and you hardly have made a fair playing field for humans to compete with machines.

Question: why do you think Canada's economy has slowed down every decade since 1961? If you can't think of an answer, then how do you know it doesn't have something to do with our increased dependence on machines, instead of human ingenuity?

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