Wednesday, July 14, 2021

Jobs & robots

Back in 1776, 95% of Americans were farmers. Today, only 1% are employed in farming. Agricultural technology made every farmer's efforts so much more productive in our 200+ intervening years that our society now has more than enough to eat and 94% choose to do something else. Food today is comparatively cheap and we don't need everyone working to produce it.

If you were a farmer back then who lost his farm, you didn't think "I'll go back to school and become an actuarial analyst." Because that didn't exist. Eventually whole industries, not available at that time, were created by non-farmers to serve other human needs and desires. 

All of this is to say, Automation will not steal all the jobs from human beings.

According to this expert, the pace of automation adoption during the pandemic was rapid - sometimes five years' worth achieved in five months. And yet, coming out of the pandemic we have no lack of jobs but rather a lack of workers to apply for them.

from Mind Matters

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