[trotsky]

Poster has confused the difference between lowering unemployment rates and the shifting role of labor, like that brought about by the industrial revolution.

Hopefully he isn't secretly dreaming of firing the person who answers the phones as a triumph of the information age.

[danielharan]

The kinds of work we've done have changed, as has the social structures in which we perform it. I'd rather see far more people being self-employed, as it was before the industrial revolution - although in more interesting jobs and with a higher standard of living.

[trotsky]

I am struggling to understand how this whole thing doesn't boil down to "we should eliminate jobs that I used to do and hated, and get more people doing jobs like the ones I enjoy and have now"

[danielharan]

Lots of career paths (not necessarily jobs!) add value to society, and I'm not about to do them. Daycare worker? They should be paid WAY more given the value they provide. Even if the salary was higher than mine, there's no way I would consider that as an option.

Conversely, there are lots of dirty, dangerous and demeaning jobs I've never held which don't seem worth it. How many people die in coal mines every year? Would you want to do that?

By all means we should give those workers a decent shot at retraining, like Germany did with their coal miners. If anyone figures out how to use robots to entirely automate their job or engineers manage to make wind and solar scale up cheaply, I would say that's a net positive for humanity.

[rick888]

"If anyone figures out how to use robots to entirely automate their job or engineers manage to make wind and solar scale up cheaply, I would say that's a net positive for humanity."

The unions have prevented many jobs from being automated.