I guess after two and a half years, the Obama administration figures the "blame Bush" rhetoric just isn't working anymore. So now they have a new explanation for the unemployment, underemployment, and generally sucky state of this so-called recovery: blame technology and automation. It's all those infernal machines and devices that are preventing you from getting a job! The Prez explained it thusly:
“There are some structural issues with our economy where a lot of businesses have learned to become much more efficient with a lot fewer workers. You see it when you go to a bank and you use an ATM, you don’t go to a bank teller, or you go to the airport and you’re using a kiosk instead of checking in at the gate.”
Man, the economy would be going gangbusters if only we didn't have ATMs or airport kiosks. Or self-service elevators. Or long-distance phone calls that don't require an operator. Or online shopping … online bill-pay … and the whole damn job-destroying internet, actually!
Now I understand why $800 billion worth of stimulus didn't turn things around. It's all those bulldozers, graders, dump-trucks, jack-hammers, and backhoes. Think of how many "shovel-ready" jobs would be created if we just destroyed all that diesel-burning, greenhouse-gas-spouting machinery and used men with picks and shovels and wheelbarrows instead!
Socialists are basically all Luddites.