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Robots, jobs and the human fear of change
- gradschool 10y agoThe author points out that technological advance often creates more jobs than it destroys, but neglects to address the fact that the jobs it creates are invariably unsuitable for the people who have been put out of work. To imply that society benefits on balance as a whole in the long run is equivalent to saying the rest of us will be better off after a disenfranchised segment of the population dies, which we will at least until further advances cause the cycle to repeat itself. He makes a related claim that technology contributes to a trend toward more interesting and fulfilling work for many people while eliminating mostly the boring and repetitive jobs, which is also debatable. I met someone who worked in a betting shop for years at a decent rate of pay until an IT upgrade meant that no further cognitive skills were required of the staff. As a result, everyone was fired and replaced by minimum wage workers. Far from having some irrational fear of change he seems to suggest, people on the other side of this issue seem to be the more realistic and better informed parties.