Re: They toooock ewre joohbs!!!
Hence, the stagnation or retreat of standards of living for most of the population,
Funny, it seems a lot higher now for most people than it was before the industrial revolution that created and automated all the factories, and most jobs today are of considerably better quality than minding a loom in a cotton factory for 6 12-hour days a week.
As the article says, it's not a simple situation. Automating some jobs creates job losses in that field, but the additional wealth creates other fields, and other jobs. The pizza delivery is a case in point, 50 years ago that job wouldn't have existed because the average person didn't have the disposable income to pay for fast food to be couriered to their home. Today they have the money (due to good jobs) which allows that standard of living, and so the service jobs which it enables also get created. Some are low-paid, like pizza delivery, but those pizzas are made in restaurants which also employ staff at various pay levels. We're even seeing the appearance of ludicrous services like home delivery of gin & tonic kits, for those with an excess of cash. I'm sure the suppliers and their staff make a tidy income from that. It's far from the case that all the replacement jobs are lower-quality.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
