[peacetreefrog]

this guy needs a little more humility. as dan boudreaux writes:

"It’s called “history.” Since humans first controlled fire and carved arrows, history is a long tale of the invention and use of labor-saving techniques and devices. Domestication of oxen and horses. Pulleys. Levers. Irrigation channels. Metal saws. The printing press. Concrete. The wheel. All save labor, yet none has led to permanent increases in unemployment.

"It’s true that the pace of introducing new labor-saving techniques has magnificently quickened in the past two hundred years. This fast pace continues today. Yet still we encounter no evidence that labor-saving techniques permanently increase unemployment.

"You’ll reply “This time is different!” Perhaps, but I doubt it"

[RobertoG]

There are strong arguments in the "this time is different" side.

When jobs are lost because technology, the new jobs are created in fields where technology can't compete. Until now that was intellectual work.

[peacetreefrog]

To me, it's a lack of imagination -- not the ability to imagine the kinds of work people will be doing in 100 years (which is very difficult), but the lack of empathy/ability to get out of the here and now. In 1800's over half of US workers were in agriculture, today it's under 2%. If you were to tell a farmer that in 1900 they'd freak out, very similarly to how this guy's freaking out today.