Will robots steal our jobs? The humble loom suggests not
washingtonpost.com
Will robots steal our jobs? The humble loom suggests not
1–10 of 47 posts
Re: Will robots steal our jobs? The humble loom suggests not
#2One of the arguments of this article is that as technology stabilizes we will be able to demand higher pay.
Technology will likely not stabilize.
Re: Will robots steal our jobs? The humble loom suggests not
#3One of the arguments of this article is that as technology stabilizes we will be able to demand higher pay. Technology will likely not stabilize.
Overall, technology hasn't really "stabilized" since the loom, either.
It has, however, stabilized locally for periods of time in one area of industry or another.
And it is likely to do similar things again.
Re: Will robots steal our jobs? The humble loom suggests not
#4Richard Posner's view:
http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/2014/01/secular-stagnation...
Re: Will robots steal our jobs? The humble loom suggests not
#5why would anyone want to job in the first place...? If you're in a place where you need to mindlessly execute duties, it's not a good place.
Re: Will robots steal our jobs? The humble loom suggests not
#6[deleted]
Re: Will robots steal our jobs? The humble loom suggests not
#7I thought humble loom is a name of some weird startup.
Re: Will robots steal our jobs? The humble loom suggests not
#8On the other hand, the mechanization of agriculture had devastating social consequences when introduced to the UK in the 1700s, leading to mass unemployment, crimewaves and the introduction of the death penalty for stealing food. The industrial revolution eventualy created replacements but things got very ugly for a few generations.
There's no reason to assume that replacement forms of employment will automatically appear when needed.
Re: Will robots steal our jobs? The humble loom suggests not
#9The loom was an example of a technology that actually had a more egalitarian effect on wealth distribution: expensive skilled labor was replaced with greater numbers of cheap unskilled labor.
Given the right prices, this sort of technology can make sense even if it doesn't actually "save" labor at all -- replacing one efficient skilled person with two inefficient unskilled ones for the same output makes business sense if the skilled labor is more than double the price.
Today's market has a lot of disparity in labor prices like this, especially when you look at it globablly. So it's entirely possible for new tech that doesn't actually save labor in terms of output per worker to find a niche.
At the same time, it's also possible for tech to do the inverse, and replace three expensive unskilled workers with one skilled one who commands double the wage.
So in terms of income inequality, at least, it's not entirely clear where technology will take us.
Re: Will robots steal our jobs? The humble loom suggests not
#10"In the 19th century, the maturation and standardization of weaving technology finally brought long-overdue raises to textile workers."
Wow. Way to completely write out of the story the PEOPLE who fought tooth-and-nail to get those raises, WaPo....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lowell_Mill_Girls
Of course, acknowledging the real struggle might seriously impact the whole "things will get better by themselves, just keep sleeping" argument of the piece...