Economic `Armageddon' predicted

I think we are finally getting the benefits of all the automation thats been going on in the last 20+ years (all the money pumped into IT especially).
If the average worker is 30% more productive, what does that mean?
That means everyone needs to work 30% less. Or the other extreme is, 30% of the population doesnt need (get) to work. I dont average 30 hour weeks, I average 50+. People seem to be working more hours, and producing more per hour, so it is even better (or worse).
I think we are entering a real shakeup period, but the cause of it is good - advancements in technology. It will be painful for a lot of Americans , and you need to keep that in mind when voting. Bush views it as 'hard work' (acceptible losses?). We could do a better job of transitioning with less pain, and others (Kerry, Dean, ..) known what 'compassion' means, and would do better.

Hey maybe we all wont have to pay back those pesky student loans they gave us???

Rigpigs, I live in alberta.

Perhaps we will see a newly emerging trend in the near future. Saddam had begun denominating Iraq's oil reserves in Euros about 10 months before the invasion. The net effect on the dollar, post oil futures, would amount to a further decline in value of 10%. The only two countries whose currency would suffer under such a consideration are the US and the UK. The dollar is going to see rough times and so will most of us here in the US.
-Our purchase power will decline; remember we are an importing nation; the ONLY positive trade balance we carry is in agricultural goods
-We may find it difficult to fund our national debt as China's appetite cedes from their earlier interest in using those purchases to manage any serious decline in their currency
-Real inflation, after you remove the Feds recently developed techniques for massaging the CPI (Hedonics - used to describe an adjustment to prices to compensate for quality improvements; if you pay $1,000 for a computer this year that has twice the power of last year's $1,000 device then, according to the government, the price of computers has been cut in half) and (Substitution - used to describe the success of Wal Mart where people will substitute lower-cost items for higher cost items suggesting that the CPI has declined, even if the cheaper product does not last as long and must be replaced.)

Are you SURE this is an either/or kind of thing?

No, crazybob, it very likely is a seemless combination of both fanatical capitalism and thievery that is driving them, which is even worse.