[pirate787]

This is a common misconception about the economy. There is not a fixed pie of jobs to be distributed.

Rather, the opposite is generally true, the more people working the more growth and innovation and the more opportunities and capacity for employment.

[barchar]

Only half true. You can, actually, decide to channel increased productivity into involuntary unemployment and it seems that to some extent we do just that.

Productivity and growth aren't zero-sum, but money definitely is. All the assets and liabilities in the economy sum to zero, so if you want to add new jobs you need to either deflate the economy or increase someone's debt level.

[techpineapple]

"the more people working the more growth and innovation and the more opportunities and capacity for employment"

So if I'm understanding this causal relationship you're suggesting, the problem is too many people are rejecting employment, and if more people wanted to work there would be more jobs?

[tonyedgecombe]

Next they will be telling us about their new perpetual motion machine.

[FredPret]

"More people working" merely contributes to growth and innovation. You need other inputs as well. The number of people working may or may not be a bottleneck.

But once you do have growth and innovation going one way or another, then that leads to more jobs.

[jimworm]

That's only true in a theoretical sense. In practice capital needs to invest in the right things for that to happen, otherwise the people are better off working for their own immediate needs as subsistence farmers or hunter-gatherers.