Are there no jobs because people are too productive?

[grouchyoldcoot]

I was reading an opinion piece on CNN, and it put me in mind of something I've been wondering about for a while- are we moving into an era where there is just no economic motivation to employ additional people? The individual productivity of employed people has been rising pretty steadily for a long time. It seems reasonable that it would eventually reach a point where it takes fewer than 100% of the employable population to satisfy the typical demand for the whole population. The standard theory is that people's standard of living just rises as their productivity rises, and thus their consumption rises, so there is always a market for that increased productivity. I know *my* consumption doesn't rise indefinitely, though. A lot of the financial 'productivity' at the moment rests in the hands of the very rich, and they surely can't consume fast enough to match that productivity. As more people become unemployed their ability to consume actually drops, making those who are still employed even more over-productive.

Sorry, I know this doesn't make much sense, and it doesn't involve any cute pictures of cats. I just got to thinking about it in the midst of this 'where are all the jobs' business.