It seems to me that California is going backwards in their – our? – new freeway sign program. The new signs use more material and are simpler, using less labor. It seems to me that we should use more labor and less material. Even if if they end up being more expensive. Putting more people to work and saving material are both more desirable than the other way around.
Old sign, requiring some assembly.
New sign, requiring almost no assembly.
While there probably are quite a few jobs in the production of the “prefab” unit, probably not as many as the the old approach. I’m no economist but it always seemed to me that the market forces pushing towards more capital and less labor are great than the forces creating new and different jobs (inventing capital?) for the labor displaced by the capital.