Why I’m Not Worried About Automation Causing Mass Unemployment
Some futurists predict that new jobs won’t come into being fast enough to replace those made obsolete. The thing is, smart people have erroneously made that same prediction for 300 years.
by Patrick Cox
September 7, 2018
Many futurists believe that humanity is approaching a period of profound transformation as new technologies deliver new and inexpensive goods and services. Some call this dawning era “the Age of Abundance” because prices—even for goods and services considered luxuries today—will fall dramatically.
But at the same time, fear about the short-term consequences of AI and automation on employment is growing. Specifically, some futurists predict that new types of jobs won’t come into being fast enough to replace those that have been made obsolete.
The interesting thing about this gloomy prediction is that it has been repeated in every past period of innovation since the beginning of the Industrial Era. Nevertheless, mass unemployment has never come to pass as the result of technological progress.
Still, a lot of people think it’s going to be different this time. Innovation, they believe, is happening too rapidly for markets to adjust. Just about everybody agrees …
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