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No, that's a theory. Most kids coming out of college will go into careers their grandparents have never even heard of or don't understand. That's the way it's

No, that's a theory. Most kids coming out of college will go into careers their grandparents have never even heard of or don't understand. That's the way it's always been, while old jobs get replaced by technology, new jobs get created. It's not unique to this generation.

maxerickson 10y ago
Grandparents aren't that dumb. Go dig up US employment statistics (BLS is good source). There are a lot of people doing jobs that are really easy to describe. "Driver". "Clerk". And so on.
- kefka 10y ago
  Not only that, but if you describe something very minutely and exacting, it will seem very difficult. But if you describe it as "A game with 2 opposing sides, with a shared oblong ball, and each team tries to get it to the other side past their opponents." And I just described US football.
esahione 10y ago
When has thought ever been automated before? When have we had a tool that can build tools? How can capitalism survive with 80+% unemployment? It's as inevitable as gravity.
Baeocystin 10y ago
"That's the way it's always been" works great, right up until it doesn't. History is full of periods of great upheaval, and there's no reason to think those are over, either. This is a problem we need to pay attention to.
root_axis 10y ago
> while old jobs get replaced by technology, new jobs get created. But always significantly fewer than before, that's the entire point of the technology, to reduce the number of humans needed for the process.
- simonh 10y ago
  And yet somehow the employment and unemployment rates in the developed world are pretty healthy, and there are more manufacturing jobs in the developing world than ever. The point of technology is to reduce the number of people doing a given task, freeing up that labor to perform higher value activities, or the same activity to a higher value. So fewer people need to be sailors, road work gang members or field laborers and more of us can be TV presenters, computer game artists and SCUBA diving instructors. Occupations representative of whole industries the world couldn't have afforded to support a hundred years ago. Vast swathes of the population back then were doing jobs that hardly even exist anymore, yet somehow we don't have vast swathes of the population out of work. That doesn't even factor in the massive transfer of female labor from household work to the working class and professional labor markets.
  - cloudwizard 10y ago
    You are only talking about recent history. Historically, the vast majority of humanity lived in abject poverty. I expect the vast majority of new jobs to be low skilled, low pay jobs like cleaning the robots. or gig economy where people are paid by the minute and screwed over by Uber like companies.
  - antisthenes 10y ago
    > And yet somehow the employment and unemployment rates in the developed world are pretty healthy ...if you ignore half of Europe
  - maxsilver 10y ago
    > the employment and unemployment rates in the developed world are pretty healthy, "In 1948, the labor-force participation rate was a staggering 96.7% among men in their prime working years. That statistic has been steadily declining ever since" Since 2000, the labor force participation rate has steadily declined for women as well. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/10/13/a-record-number-of-men-arent-working-this-might-finally-explain-why/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/10/13/a-rec... "One in six prime-age guys has no job; it's kind of worse than it was in the depression in 1940," says Nicholas Eberstadt, an economic and demographic researcher at AEI. http://www.npr.org/2016/09/06/492849471/an-economic-mystery-why-are-men-leaving-the-workforce http://www.npr.org/2016/09/06/492849471/an-economic-mystery-...

maxerickson 10y ago

Grandparents aren't that dumb. Go dig up US employment statistics (BLS is good source). There are a lot of people doing jobs that are really easy to describe. "Driver". "Clerk". And so on.

kefka 10y ago
Not only that, but if you describe something very minutely and exacting, it will seem very difficult. But if you describe it as "A game with 2 opposing sides, with a shared oblong ball, and each team tries to get it to the other side past their opponents." And I just described US football.

esahione 10y ago

When has thought ever been automated before? When have we had a tool that can build tools? How can capitalism survive with 80+% unemployment? It's as inevitable as gravity.

Baeocystin 10y ago

"That's the way it's always been" works great, right up until it doesn't. History is full of periods of great upheaval, and there's no reason to think those are over, either. This is a problem we need to pay attention to.

root_axis 10y ago

> while old jobs get replaced by technology, new jobs get created. But always significantly fewer than before, that's the entire point of the technology, to reduce the number of humans needed for the process.

simonh 10y ago
And yet somehow the employment and unemployment rates in the developed world are pretty healthy, and there are more manufacturing jobs in the developing world than ever. The point of technology is to reduce the number of people doing a given task, freeing up that labor to perform higher value activities, or the same activity to a higher value. So fewer people need to be sailors, road work gang members or field laborers and more of us can be TV presenters, computer game artists and SCUBA diving instructors. Occupations representative of whole industries the world couldn't have afforded to support a hundred years ago. Vast swathes of the population back then were doing jobs that hardly even exist anymore, yet somehow we don't have vast swathes of the population out of work. That doesn't even factor in the massive transfer of female labor from household work to the working class and professional labor markets.
- cloudwizard 10y ago
  You are only talking about recent history. Historically, the vast majority of humanity lived in abject poverty. I expect the vast majority of new jobs to be low skilled, low pay jobs like cleaning the robots. or gig economy where people are paid by the minute and screwed over by Uber like companies.
- antisthenes 10y ago
  > And yet somehow the employment and unemployment rates in the developed world are pretty healthy ...if you ignore half of Europe
- maxsilver 10y ago
  > the employment and unemployment rates in the developed world are pretty healthy, "In 1948, the labor-force participation rate was a staggering 96.7% among men in their prime working years. That statistic has been steadily declining ever since" Since 2000, the labor force participation rate has steadily declined for women as well. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/10/13/a-record-number-of-men-arent-working-this-might-finally-explain-why/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/10/13/a-rec... "One in six prime-age guys has no job; it's kind of worse than it was in the depression in 1940," says Nicholas Eberstadt, an economic and demographic researcher at AEI. http://www.npr.org/2016/09/06/492849471/an-economic-mystery-why-are-men-leaving-the-workforce http://www.npr.org/2016/09/06/492849471/an-economic-mystery-...