Overworked, Under-appreciated, and Unemployed in America - The Argument for Inefficiency

In the United States, we don’t have an unemployment problem. We have an underemployment problem and an overworking problem. The problem with our economy is it is built to run cleanly, solidly, and with as little overhead as possible.  We have an efficient capitalist society (don’t worry, this won’t be a full on socialist rant) that trims off the excess, and pulls us down to the lowest common denominator.  This is seen as a good thing.  It keeps businesses offering goods and services for the lowest prices around – they make money, we save money.  In theory, it works to perfection.  In actuality, when we talk about trimming off the excess, we aren’t talking about buying too many parts to make our widgets.  What we are talking about is trimming off the excess jobs.  What we are talking about is trimming off excess workers.  We are talking about trimming excess people.  This is what efficiency does to our society, and this lack of specificity sterilizes our society from what is happening to the “last in/first out” of us.  We need less efficiency, because it benefits all of us – the workers, corporations, and government included.