Friday, February 18, 2011

Labor and jobs

Once Labor cared about jobs but now they are too dry for that.

Bill Shorten is happy for people to shop offshore, and Stephen Conroy is philosophical about the loss of jobs from the collapse of the REDgroup. He's right that in the case of the REDgroup that the reasons for the collapse are complex and not directly attributable to the growth of online shopping. He goes on to say that technology changes industries and new jobs are often created. He cites the example of Kodak, not mentioning that it is now a much smaller business than it once was. And he's missing the point about online shopping, deliberately or not, that there will be fewer of these new jobs and many of them will be offshore.

Where are the unions in this debate?

3 comments:

lottie jay said...

Conroy is right that the closure of these bookstores is a tragedy.(Wonder if he really means that?)I'm not sure I want booksellers to be "multiple platform". I spend enough time with my head stuck in a computer as it is... an online shopping / reading experience is no match for a coffee and browse at Borders. Okay, it's a simplistic view, but there it is.

lottie jay said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Andrew's red dog blog said...

I think kids get tired of screens to and retreat to their bed to read a print book. Print will mean leisure in the future and screen will be kind of like work.