In 19 100, if you were a blacksmith, you probably had made a good living. But verys soon after 19 hundred, being a blacksmith was not a good occupation. And so the questionis, what has has changed? And i think the answer is that if high school doesn't pay any more as much as it used to, it's hard for people. I often say thati sort of every non employed american is a failure of ontronerial imagination.
Why are fewer men working over the last few decades? Is a universal basic income a good policy for coping with the loss of employment? Economist Edward Glaeser of Harvard University talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about what Glaeser calls the war on work--the policy changes that have reduced employment among prime-aged men. Glaeser does not see the universal basic income as a viable solution to the decrease in work especially if technology ends up reducing employment opportunities more dramatically in the future. The conversation also includes a discussion of the role of cities and the reduction in geographic mobility in the United States.