Responsibility

The times they are a-changin' -- Bob Dylan

   Workers migrate to where the jobs are.
   Makers move to where the workers are.
   Merchants set up shop where the customers are.

   It's not hard to figure out, but that's at the core of the study of economics. It's the study of what people do with what's available, whether in a hunter-gatherer society, an agricultural society, an emerging industry society and all the way up to the complicated interrelationships of workers, shop owners and employers, corporations and government typical of major nations today. What's true at the shop level is also true at the corporate level.
   The trick is to understand the principles driving economic movements, and avoid using academic jargon to explain these movements.
   In principle, a town is a gathering of people to enable more efficient use of resources. Cotton mills, for example, needed a source of power, so they were built alongside rivers and streams that drove the wheel that powered the mill. In turn, the mill owner needed workers, so they migrated from the family farms and clustered near the mill that employed them.
   In turn, the workers who were paid in wages needed somewhere to spend it for food, clothing and shelter. This attracted merchants to provide the supply to meet the demand.
   A town was born to conform to the Law of Supply and Demand.

   No matter how large and complex a nation and its society becomes, that principle of Economics 101 still applies.
   Now consider America in the 21st Century. People still migrate to America because this is where jobs are. Granted, many jobs demand high skills, and well educated people who have these skills can supply their labor in exchange for higher wages.
   Nevertheless, there are other jobs -- those that demand lesser skills and offer lower wages -- that are ignored by the well educated and highly skilled, but are eagerly taken up by others, who migrate to America from other regions where there is little or no demand for any kind of labor.
   At the same time, the nature of the demand for labor is changing. Technology, efficiency and concern about pollution has reduced the demand for coal to power manufacturing plants, so there is less demand for miners, who must then migrate to other regions or learn other skills.
   This is just one example, simplistic perhaps, of the economic principles at work in America today. Times change. Demand for goods and services changes. Demand for workers to produce these goods and services changes.
   Consequently, workers adapt to the new demands for labor supply, and either learn new skills where they are, or migrate to where there is a demand for labor.
   This has been the story, not only of America, but of every society for many hundreds of years. Suppliers move to where the workers and customers are. Workers move to where the demand for labor is.
    Along the way, others arrange to coordinate the several factors of production, and take a profit for their efforts. And those who apply these skills are called entrepreneurs.
   
   Despite all the sound and fury of those who lament change and insist on a return to the way things were, that's not going to happen.
   Corporate, government and civic leaders, as well as workers and customers, have a responsibility to be aware that change is the only constant in life. It is essential for a peaceful society to either adapt to change, to change the adaptations, and to seek the wisdom to know the difference.