[OrganicMSG]

Did anyone sensible think automation was largely responsible for the job loss in the richer countries? Manufacturing has chased cheap wages globally since the 1960's.

I always thought the widely accepted narrative was that automation might bring some bulk manufacturing back to richer countries when it starts to compete with the cost of a skilled worker in a lower wage economy, after a decades long policy of outsourcing manufacturing chains, not that richer countries somehow automated away all the jobs at home.