No Jobs

I'm trying to find a silver lining in the statistic that only 58.7% of adult Americans have jobs.

I can't find one.  I suppose, in theory, less labor means cheaper prices, but I see no evidence of it.  My grocery store absolutely sucks ass -- they keep two lines with actual check out people and then do self-check out for the rest and it is a total cluster fuck all the time.  Do I see a drop in grocery prices as the result of this?  I haven't noticed.  Maybe the stock price ticks up .5%.  Maybe the executives get a little bigger bonus at the end of the year.  But I don't see the benefit to society here.  Maybe I'm missing something.  And I'm not even close to some protectionist liberal.  If you read Public Musings, you'll know this.  I skew libertarian.  But it would take a blind person not to notice that no one freaking works in this country anymore because there are NO JOBS.  Maybe LA is skewed, but my buddy is on summer break and he's been coming down to LA because "no one in LA works, everyone can just hang out all day."

This is something I find particularly irritating about Republican and Libertarian ideas about economics -- this idea that we just need to back away and the free market do it's magic.  You know what the result will be (and already is, in some ways)?  50% of people (at least) on the dole.  And they criticize people for being on the dole and want to take away the dole and then have no ideas about jobs except some mumbling about entrepreneurs and lower taxes.  Any experience with human beings, you know, very, very, very few are self-starting entrepreneurs with the skills, talent, patience, and resources to be independent businessmen.  And those few who are successful in such pursuits take years of trial and error and failure to get there.  What do people do in the meantime?  What do people who can provide a role in society, but simply are not capable of starting and running a business?  I mean, haven't these people ever taken a P.E. class?  Not everyone is a team captain.  Not everyone is good at stuff.  And what happens when we just let all this free market take over?  I'll tell you - 1% will be super rich and everyone will work as their personal servants and do jobs that cannot be automated or sent overseas.  Nothing sounds worse to me.  It will ruin opportunity for future generations.  It will spell the end of anything resembling democracy.