you are the media you consume.
You've effectively said that half of the working population in the US is surplus to the requirements of financial utility.
And implicitly that as long as someone is prepared to do real work somewhere, for peanuts, the markets can continue levitating their way further and further from the needs of that surplus 50%.
Who will be left with nothing at all.
But MfM mentioned yesterday that to produce ethanol to an SUV you need land that would feed 80 people under subsistence agriculture. So, if we run out of oil I expect the need for labour in "productive" sectors will grow a lot. Can the last politician to go out the revolving door please turn the lights off?
We could have decent lives on a 16 hour work week, of course it won't happen for reasons we're all aware of.
I think this has to be considered a large contributor to the polarization of wealth, mostly because it's happening in Europe as well (where it isn't being accelerated by tax policy as in the US).