When was the last time that you ever learned anything new?

There are some folks who are looking at the way in which our world is evolving that say that the explosion of technology is one of the reasons that we are having problems with unemployment.  Computers are replacing people at a faster rate than people can invent new ways to use computers to generate the industries of the future that will employ more people.  According to this line of thought, the basic problem is that raw computer power is expanding at a phenomenal rate and we are just not readjusting our societal systems fast enough to keep pace.  A century or so ago, when the industrial revolution forced us to move from an agricultural society to an urban society, technological change took place at a much slower rate, and the new technologies were much easier to master.  The technology at the heart of the so-called information age is developing at a blistering pace and it poses a much stiffer learning curve.

Assuming, as I do, that this analysis is correct, it would seem to me that we should start focusing on the challenge right now.  We not only have to educate our children to be prepared to prosper in the economy of tomorrow, we also have to transform yesterday's work force to be prepared to play a useful role in today's economy.  This second challenge may well prove more difficult than the first.  The education of a child poses different challenges than the re-education of an adult.  The child's mind is something of an open book, while the adult often feels that he or she already has an education.  An adult is often set in his or her ways and resents having to change, particularly if it includes a demotion at work or less prestige in society.  We can see this technological dichotomy very clearly in the home where the children help their parents with their email.

In the long run, the education of our children is more important than the re-education of their parents, but in the short run, we have to address the problem of their parents joblessness because it is where the political crunch is being felt today.  I am a staunch conservative in my fiscal views and I want to elect conservatives in 2012, but I have not yet seen much real conversation about what we should do about this challenge.  Newt Gingrich is the only one that I have heard mention replacing unemployment payments with job retraining.  I wholeheartedly support that thought, but I want to see the idea fleshed out a bit more.  I utterly reject President Obama's approach to the problem which involves taking care of the unemployed by providing them with government subsidies.  Not only can we not afford that approach, it is precisely the reverse of what we need.  It encourages the unemployed to find fault with the system rather than helping and motivating them to work hard to find a job that will contribute to pulling us out of the mess that we are in right now.

I am an optimist and I have faith in my country, but I worry about our current mood.  It would seem to me that too many of us have lost faith in what has made us the greatest nation in the history of the world.  We are depressed because people who are hungrier than we are manage to take jobs away from us and we are angry because some of our businesses are aiding and abetting the process.  We hanker for yesterday's world, have trouble seeing today's world clearly, and refuse to see tomorrow's world.  If we continue to go down that path it will take us to places that we need not go.  Why not embrace the change that is upon us and find a safe path forward that includes learning the new ABCs.  Ask yourself when was the last time you learned anything really new?  We can all see at least some of the problems that face us.  If you are one of the "permanently unemployed," pick a problem, learn about it, and then do something to fix it.  With that kind of an attitude and preparation I'll bet you won't be unemployed much longer