The economy reeks because it doesn't need humans anymore

Ok, that is an oversimplification. But it has always bothered me that most politicians argue over economics as if their policies are the primary drivers of the exchange of goods in a country of 300,000,000 people. Spend some money on some new bridges to stimulate the economy (for a minute)! Scale back regulations to reduce burden on businesses (environment, safe food, or wide-scale fraud in the financial sector be damned)! Adjust the income tax rate a percentage point up or down (as if America hasn't both prospered and failed in either direction already)!

Well, here's an Atlantic article that, unlike most politicians and media outlets, actually addresses some basic fundamentals of the economy. Turns out there are some long-standing trends that go a lot further to explain economic woes than anything Bush or Obama have done. It's productivity, stupid, and it's made almost everything cheaper and less labor intensive...except a few necessities getting really, really expensive.

Of course, economic innovation isn't inherently bad. But it is messy. There was a time when a vast majority of Americans were farmers. Then some figured out how to farm more efficiently and feed more people. Jobs, you might say, were technically lost. Of course, this freed up labor for the industrial revolution, as transportation developed, electricity became widespread, and manufacturing processes advanced. Not that it was a smooth transition; cities faced new problems with huge influxes of people, living conditions for early factory workers were often horrible, and economic inequality was a problem.

Now, things are again changing, this time perhaps more rapidly, thanks to technology, automation of the manufacturing process, and a global population that is competing with rising middle classes. You can't wind back the clock and make the old jobs pay more again. But you also can't ignore that new realities require innovative solutions, some of which the markets aren't going to fix themselves.

While almost everything has become cheaper, the things truly eating at the US economy have not experienced the same level of innovation. Education, energy, housing (in areas that are economically productive) and health care are crucial areas, things people need to really take advantage of a good quality of life in the developed world, that are becoming prohibitively expensive. Addressing this is obviously crucial, but unfortunately, some basic economic incentives and realities make innovation extremely difficult. (This is a philosophical start on the education front; I dare you to watch it and believe that fundamentally there is a reason for education to be increasingly unattainable in this day and age.)

And neither liberals (unwilling to acknowledge we can't go back to the way it was with manufacturing jobs carrying a middle class) nor conservatives (unwilling to acknowledge that market solutions alone will not solve these problems in a way that promotes growth and social benefits such as not letting the poor be stuck in stupidity and without any health care) have solutions.