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While it's true that we'll continue to feel the hurt of job shirts, people have thought that technology would kill the economy for hundreds of years. Keynes th

While it's true that we'll continue to feel the hurt of job shirts, people have thought that technology would kill the economy for hundreds of years. Keynes thought people would be working 15 hours per week in 2030.[1] If anything we'll be working 55 hours per week. Education needs to change, certainly. The economy will move forward, certainly. But there's no reason to freak out. Society has moved through economic change before and we'll find a way through the internet-induced havoc as well. [1] http://www.theguardian.com/business/2008/sep/01/economics http://www.theguardian.com/business/2008/sep/01/economics

redwood 13y ago
True, but that doesn't mean we aren't finally seeing the reality pan out. If you want to call all jobs "jobs" then fine: Another way of looking at it is: 150 years ago people didn't have jobs the way we do today at all. It was completely different. So we can expect the "jobs" of the future, e.g. the life experiences of the future, to be completely different. That difference will have major unavoidable ramifications for government, taxation, freedom, democracy, everything.
- wmeredith 13y ago
  I'm pretty sure that if someone from 150 years ago shadowed me for a day, they would conclude that what I do is not "work".
  - lifeisstillgood 13y ago
    that is a very good point - effectively what they did was work in the mechanical sense - now we have outsourced that to machines. What you do would have been clerical, logistical or planning work, or possibly creative. And the first three are definitively going to be outsourced to computers soon. So what will the person in 150 years do that you will not call work?
- cafard 13y ago
  The US was primarily agricultural, but there was quite a lot of manufacturing, commercial, and government employment back then. So I think that "at all" is putting it too strongly.
  - cm2012 13y ago
    Aristocratic work in particular was not so different from today.
arikrak 13y ago
The article recognizes that, but things are moving faster now. Also, people should be working less now, and instead many work 60-70hours a week while others are out of work.
jimbokun 13y ago
"Society has moved through economic change before and we'll find a way through the internet-induced havoc as well." You say that as if this process has gone well in the past. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestead_Strike http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestead_Strike If anything, history shows us we should expect great unrest potentially leading to violence at times of rapid technological change.
- perlpimp 13y ago
  yes http://venturebeat.com/2014/01/13/uber-paris-confirms-attack-on-car-we-strongly-condemn-the-violence/ http://venturebeat.com/2014/01/13/uber-paris-confirms-attack...

redwood 13y ago

True, but that doesn't mean we aren't finally seeing the reality pan out. If you want to call all jobs "jobs" then fine: Another way of looking at it is: 150 years ago people didn't have jobs the way we do today at all. It was completely different. So we can expect the "jobs" of the future, e.g. the life experiences of the future, to be completely different. That difference will have major unavoidable ramifications for government, taxation, freedom, democracy, everything.

wmeredith 13y ago
I'm pretty sure that if someone from 150 years ago shadowed me for a day, they would conclude that what I do is not "work".
- lifeisstillgood 13y ago
  that is a very good point - effectively what they did was work in the mechanical sense - now we have outsourced that to machines. What you do would have been clerical, logistical or planning work, or possibly creative. And the first three are definitively going to be outsourced to computers soon. So what will the person in 150 years do that you will not call work?
cafard 13y ago
The US was primarily agricultural, but there was quite a lot of manufacturing, commercial, and government employment back then. So I think that "at all" is putting it too strongly.
- cm2012 13y ago
  Aristocratic work in particular was not so different from today.

arikrak 13y ago

The article recognizes that, but things are moving faster now. Also, people should be working less now, and instead many work 60-70hours a week while others are out of work.

jimbokun 13y ago

"Society has moved through economic change before and we'll find a way through the internet-induced havoc as well." You say that as if this process has gone well in the past. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestead_Strike http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestead_Strike If anything, history shows us we should expect great unrest potentially leading to violence at times of rapid technological change.

perlpimp 13y ago
yes http://venturebeat.com/2014/01/13/uber-paris-confirms-attack-on-car-we-strongly-condemn-the-violence/ http://venturebeat.com/2014/01/13/uber-paris-confirms-attack...