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> 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 re

> 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-...
- nradov 10y ago
  As an active scuba diver myself, I know that very few people can ever make a living as diving instructors. The market is just too small and isn't growing. The vast majority of instructors do it as a side job.

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-...
nradov 10y ago
As an active scuba diver myself, I know that very few people can ever make a living as diving instructors. The market is just too small and isn't growing. The vast majority of instructors do it as a side job.