That is my reaction also. Quality engagement with society that yields a good income. That almost certainly involves work, but very likely in an independent context such that there is no job as such. It also makes sense that instead of the usual mix of products or services individuals will increasingly enter into licensing agreements that best market what they have to offer and provide income over significant periods of time without a lot or even any direct involvement. Factoring companies and jobs out of the equation can potentially make work both more efficient and rewarding.
The 1950s and 60s were great in America because Europe was decimated in WWII, heavy industry was alive and well, the population was growing, the government was helping GIs with housing loans and college, and imports and global trade had not yet taken hold.
Fast forward and globalization has moved production else where, population growth compared to Nordic countries is massive, there are a multitude of factors at play.
We've had 40 years of failed supply side economics in the US. Let us now try the theory that demand drives the economy just as much or more than supply.
(This means favoring policies that increase pay across broad swaths of the population vs favoring policies that benefit businesses over workers)
>Both Western Europe and capitalist Asia (Japan, Singapore, South Korea) also had near full employment with quality jobs during this period.
That seems off to me right away, because the major investment in South Korea didn't come until later. Certainly not in the 50's. In the mid 60's South Korea was still going through shifts towards industrialization.
Also Singapore was not well in the 50s and 60s. It got full independence in 1965, and (from the speech of Lee Kuan Yew), erratic electricity, only half of the population access to sewage system. The economy picked up only afterwards.
You can’t have high paying jobs unless firms have high productivity from their employees. No one knows how to create highly productive employees from thin air. If they did... they would be doing it! Does anyone really believe that capital is scarce?
And there is a natural experiment demonstrating what happens in a low productivity, high wage industry: healthcare. Do we really want to turn all on industry into the tapeworm that is healthcare in the IS healthcare industry?
