warren.lewington@xxxxxxxxx: On Thu, 9 Jun 2005 12:16:53 +0800, you wrote: > BJA, you are in fact absolutely correct. > A move away from one industry does create something > new. The problem is whether the previously employed > specialists in the old industry can be redeployed to > the new ones. > Generally the answer is no, they can't. Consequently > they are discarded from the labour market. > Teaching old dogs new tricks is the hardest part of > the shifts we see in industry. > And one might question the economies involved of a factory tooled up to produce, say, 200 tractors per annum, employing 1400 factory hands -- whether trained or not. Otherwise, presumably market forces mean the price of the tractor would not justify the labour substitution ? There may indeed be a transfer of labour from one area to another, but it's not likely, is it, to be a one-for-one transfer ? --Peter M ************************************************** To post a message to austechwriter, send the message to austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx To subscribe to austechwriter, send a message to austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "subscribe" in the Subject field. To unsubscribe, send a message to austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "unsubscribe" in the Subject field. To search the austechwriter archives, go to www.freelists.org/archives/austechwriter To contact the list administrator, send a message to austechwriter-admins@xxxxxxxxxxxxx **************************************************