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No, I'm saying electricity didn't "steal people's jobs" even taking into account roles that ceased to exist altogether, because it phased in slowly, created far
by notahacker 4y ago
No, I'm saying electricity didn't "steal people's jobs" even taking into account roles that ceased to exist altogether, because it phased in slowly, created far more jobs than it took away and people whose roles were "replaced" by it simply adapted to different (usually better) jobs, and the absurd predictions of the time were all wrong not because of how they were phrased but because as a simple matter of fact electricity neither heralded a post-work utopia nor forced workers wages to stay at subsistence level.
- ithkuil 4y agoAh I see what you mean. I don't think "stealing jobs" means that there will be less jobs in absolute. It usually means (at least that's how I usually see it used) that people who current have a job and are trained to do that, will no longer be able to do it, and switching to another job is not easy: it's not just skills, but often also you need to relocate somewhere else etc. The problems with coal miners losing their jobs is not because we don't have other jobs available. It's that the lives of those people will be upended and it's not surprising that people resist that.