Will America ever get out of the two income trap where one job is enough to support a family, and therefore these automated job losses lead to happier home makers instead of widespread unemployment?
The hardest part about this plan is the fact that 2 high earning potential people may be a lot more culturally compatible than one high earning potential person and one low earning potential person. So now we have 50% of the jobs, 2 high wage earners living together and 2 low earners living together.
This is an interesting point. This whole conversation has made me think about some things. I in no way support the antiquated ideal that men belong at work and women belong in the home or that marriage should only be between a man and a woman. But dang, if that just happened to be what everyone wanted I'd be a lot less worried about our future.
I tried to make my statement as gender neutral as possible, but I am still infused with the cultural norm of an ideal male breadwinner and female homemaker. This makes me think a high income man with a low income woman is normal, as is a high income man and woman together, or a low income man and woman. I'd imagine same sex relationships are novel enough on their own that income difference are a minor part of cultural expectations.
The disconnect is with a high income woman paired with a low income man. Does the thought of that make your eye twitch with its off balancedness? With women outnumbering men on the college campus its going to be the story more and more that a female breadwinner has a lower income male partner. Does your first thought of that low income man look like a gym going, dinner cooking, and meticulously organized and supportive house husband, or a low motivated gamer leech?
Eventually we'll get to the point where a high income woman/low income man will get no more side eye than a high income man/ low income woman. Any idea how many more years that will take?
As retail declines, a lot of low income/low barrier to entry jobs declines with it. 2 low income people could support each other, but there's not much 2 unemployed people can do.