Chapter 9. Rising Wealth and the Impending Labor Shortage

The idea crept into my mind slowly that a worldwide labor shortage could develop. It did not occur to me all at once, and at every step of the way it had to overcome preconceptions that years of education had formed and experience had reinforced. The first glimmers of the idea occurred to me while I was having lunch with my colleagues Javier and Jesus in Mexico City in 1993. We were at an upscale, successful restaurant, and there were not enough waitresses. This fact was very obvious, and we talked about it during the lunch. Throughout the third world, service people are always standing around waiting to help anyone with money. Restaurants in poor countries are usually overstaffed, but ...

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