[RealityVoid]

But it did impovrish them. How big a percentage of the population needs to have it worse that automation becomes a burden on society?

I think automation will happen no matter what, but in the meantime, sometimes it might make sense to slow it down. Saying there is no such reason for slowing it down is a simplistic point of view.

EDIT: You edited your initial comment and I find it commendable you changed your stance based on new information. (relating to Luddites and technological unemployment)

[Fantastic_T]

Yep I assumed they believed in tech unemployment but I checked my assumption and couldn't find any evidence for it.

However I will say that in the long run it is very unlikely that the majority of Luddites were not far better off after the power loom than before. The quality of jobs available for the average person dramatically improved over the course industrialization, because automation increases human prosperity.

[ska]

But that is the actual point being missed, I think.

The "Luddites" themselves, who were a small majority of highly skilled, highly paid labor, were not better off. They were worse off. Their children had worse prospects because they grew up without the advantages they would have had, etc.

But they were not the average person. And eventually, everyone was on average better off.

So this is key lesson to take. It is perfectly reasonable to believe changes like this can lead to overall benefits that make it compelling. However, real people get really hurt in this process. Waving our hands about how "market forces" will sort things out doesn't help if that evolution takes longer than your working life to be effective.

And if a real person is standing up and saying "I'm going to get screwed by this" - it is incredibly naive to respond by saying "Don't worry, it will work itself out in the end". For that person, it is a very real possibility - in some cases a near certainty, that it won't.

From a policy point of view, as a society, you cannot avoid dealing with this. You either deal with it head on, or you deal with the fallout.