At the root of all this is the biggest misconception/lie of all - that efficiency is always good for the consumer.

At a certain point, all efficiencies do is increase profits for the shareholders/owners. Why should they cut prices simply because they reduced labor costs by 10% after firing a chunk of their workers? The goodness of their hearts?

Point of fact - because greed is now good in the US, they'll likely raise prices at the same time so they can screw over everybody at the same time, while laughing all the way to the bank.

Economics is a complicated thing (duh) with people spending their entire lives studying how money works. They don't always agree, but at least their opinions and conclusions are (mostly) based on reality.

Now, every idiot who barely graduated HS and doesn't read "b/c it's too hard" (my wife's 50 cousins), feels qualified to weigh in publicly on US economic policy. Worse still, they elect even more idiots to the House b/c they "tell it like it is" and talk just like they do.

Running a country the size of ours requires adults with intelligence. Contrary to popular belief, it's actually pretty hard. And no offense to anyone in the food service industry, but there are very few I'd even recommend as management for the local Dairy Queen. I'd like to think that being in Congress requires more skills, rather than fewer.