<story><title>Average Is Over</title><url>http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/25/opinion/friedman-average-is-over.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>mtts</author><text>Ridiculous.&lt;p&gt;The solution to average people becoming less relevant in the economy (which I don&apos;t dispute, btw) can of course never be to make everyone above average as that is by definition impossible.&lt;p&gt;It&apos;s a feel good message for average folk that papers over the truth, which is that average folk that used to make a decent living doing average work will become poor. All of them, eventually. How poor exactly? Well, you could do worse than to look at Chinese factory workers for an indication of where things will end.&lt;p&gt;Of course it&apos;s more complicated than that: if the average man has become as poor as a Chinese factory worker, he will no longer be able to afford expensive gadgets and value added services, so it&apos;ll be in the interest of at least some sectors of the economy (think Apple and Google) to keep the impoverishment of the middle class down to a minimum. On the other hand there are other sectors of the economy (think McDonalds and Walmart) that will do just fine even if everyone is poor, so it&apos;ll be interesting to see how this plays out.&lt;p&gt;But, like I said, this article is ridiculous. Giving everyone a PhD won&apos;t solve a thing.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>geebee</author><text>&quot;The solution to average people becoming less relevant in the economy (which I don&apos;t dispute, btw) can of course never be to make everyone above average as that is by definition impossible.&quot;&lt;p&gt;It&apos;s not as impossible as you might think. The idea here is to be above average in a specialty, not in everything.
It&apos;s even more within reach when you start thinking about how narrow a specialization can become. I remember Scott Adams&apos;s reflections on this... that you can become &quot;elite&quot; by being the very best at one thing (like Roger Federer at Tennis), or by by being good at an interesting blend of different things. The first is out of range for most people, but the second is a possibility for mere mortals. Scott Adams&apos;s personal reflection was that he was good but not great at drawing, telling jokes, and commenting on business, but all three together made his comic strip unique.&lt;p&gt;Even this approach will require a substantial amount of education and hard work, but it is a possibility.</text></comment>
<story><title>Average Is Over</title><url>http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/25/opinion/friedman-average-is-over.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>mtts</author><text>Ridiculous.&lt;p&gt;The solution to average people becoming less relevant in the economy (which I don&apos;t dispute, btw) can of course never be to make everyone above average as that is by definition impossible.&lt;p&gt;It&apos;s a feel good message for average folk that papers over the truth, which is that average folk that used to make a decent living doing average work will become poor. All of them, eventually. How poor exactly? Well, you could do worse than to look at Chinese factory workers for an indication of where things will end.&lt;p&gt;Of course it&apos;s more complicated than that: if the average man has become as poor as a Chinese factory worker, he will no longer be able to afford expensive gadgets and value added services, so it&apos;ll be in the interest of at least some sectors of the economy (think Apple and Google) to keep the impoverishment of the middle class down to a minimum. On the other hand there are other sectors of the economy (think McDonalds and Walmart) that will do just fine even if everyone is poor, so it&apos;ll be interesting to see how this plays out.&lt;p&gt;But, like I said, this article is ridiculous. Giving everyone a PhD won&apos;t solve a thing.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>muyuu</author><text>The solution is none. There is no &quot;solution&quot; because it, in itself, is not a problem. The problem is that everybody feels entitled to a top 10% salary and many would &lt;i&gt;kill&lt;/i&gt; for &quot;their fair share&quot; when nowadays even the lower 10% have their basic needs covered and some left for leisure.&lt;p&gt;The problem is that a society where everybody have similar incomes is somehow fairer, when there is no logical chain leading there and to top it off it causes ruination. Did cause it already just after industrial revolution, when this disparity in productivity first became natural, and does more and more now.&lt;p&gt;Having everyone highly educated would solve many things. Not salary disparity though, as it isn&apos;t a problem in the first place. The problem is having a significant chunk of the population hungry or homeless. This can perfectly be eradicated &quot;even&quot; with a higher disparity.</text></comment>