SOLAR INDUSTRY EMPLOYS MORE THAN COAL, OIL, AND GAS COMBINED

Although the potential workforce is declining, automation of various kinds is increasing so the forecast of productivity will increase.(see figure)  (but mysteriously decline a bit far into the future).*  I can't quite get my mind around this, but increasing productivity with a declining workforce is what we want, isn't it?  I mean thousands of jobs are just going to continue to disappear as various kinds of automation take over.

So far,consumption is very healthy, but what is going to happen as the increase of unpaid people rises dramatically?  What we are seeing is that the figure called GDP is growing obsolete.  Companies are not building new factories because relatively low-cost automation of existing factories results in great increases in productivity so the new factories are not needed.

(click on figure to enlarge)

How will people survive as jobs continue to disappear?  One proposal that is gaining strength is the guaranteed minimum income that will allow people to live a modest life.  Perhaps volunteerism will replace paid work?  But how to finance this.  Perhaps automation equipment  can be taxed as if they are people.  But this will be difficult to establish.  Will dishwashers and washing machines be taxed?  How about refrigerators and microwaves?

Assuming the above can be worked out, how high should the taxes be?  You don't want them to be so high that they discourage productivity increases.

Right now, the approach the current administration is pursuing is a modern day Luddism, i.e. keeping jobs around that aren't needed anymore.**  This sort of thing was done for many years by unions, e.g. requiring more employees on trains than were needed (maybe as many as 10).  Today many trains are operated by two people.  The first step by the present administration is to restore coal mining.  This is going out of our way to pollute the atmosphere.

But the solar industry today employees more than the coal, oil, and gas industries combined.***

Solar energy employed 374,000 people over the year 2015-2016, making up 43 per cent of the sector’s workforce, while the traditional fossil fuels combined employed 187,117, making up just 22 per cent of the workforce, according to the report.***

The rapid growth is mainly  in installers of solar equipment, a job that unemployed coal miners could probably learn plus some increases in jobs for project development.***

(click on figure to enlarge)

  I foresee a day when solar panels become common roofing materials.****
I hope as a country that we don't become modern day Luddites.

* http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/31/cboinfourcharts-fahey-170330-dc-.html
** http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2016/12/modern-day-luddites.html
*** http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-solar-power-employs-more-people-more-oil-coal-gas-combined-donald-trump-green-energy-fossil-fuels-a7541971.html
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jan/12/us-solar-industry-employees-grows-oil-gas
**** http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/search?q=common+roofing+materials